


Avengers: Infinity War Aftermath

by rollie_ravioli



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), marvel movies
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Canon, Soul Stone (Marvel), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-13 07:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14744861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rollie_ravioli/pseuds/rollie_ravioli
Summary: After Thanos wiped out half of all life in the universe, the Avengers were left to pick up the pieces of a broken world, and a broken team. The remaining Avengers were left to count their losses and try to determine what their next move shall be. Tony and Nebula were left stranded on Titan, trying find a way home as Tony tries to come up with some sort of plan. Thanos comes to terms with the decisions he made to achieve his destiny.Eventually, the Avengers must reassemble, with the help of some other heroes, and figure out how to defeat Thanos and, just maybe, find a way to undo all the damage the Mad Titan has done.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After seeing Infinity War for the third time I decided I wanted to write up how I thought things would go down after the everything that happened. I wanted to see how all the characters would be feeling and advance the plot. This is my first time writing a story so if it is really bad I apologize.
> 
> This entire universe is the property of Marvel. I do not own any of the characters written about in this story.

Everyone continued to stand there in shock. No one could believe that they had lost. Most of them were still horrified at witnessing their friends and teammates disintegrating into dust. Steve just sat next the body of the deactivated Vision, wondering how this could have gone so wrong. The image of Bucky disappearing into nothingness fresh on his mind. Rocket was holding the ashes of what had once been Groot. This may not have been the first time he has had to watch him die, but something tells him that this time he won’t be able to grow back. 

Everyone was mortified, and no one really knew what to do next. After a few more minutes, Rhodey asked “What do we do now?” 

Steve was the first to answer, “We need to regroup, count our losses and organize ourselves. We should head back to the city.” He tried to be optimistic for everyone else’s sake, but everyone could hear that he had lost the optimistic, “boy scout” attitude that he had been known for. 

Everyone slowly started moving towards the city. Bruce had hopped out of the hulk buster armour and walked alongside Natasha. Along the way they saw not only the bodies of the aliens and Wakandans that had been left behind after their battle, but also the horrified soldiers who had just watched half of their comrades die in front of them. Half way to the city they grouped up with M’Baku. “What has happened?” He asked.

“Thanos won and he used the infinity stones to wipe out half the universe.” Thor replied.

“The King, he is gone as well.” Okoye added. M’Baku was horrified. He had just scene some of the men and women he has known and fought alongside disappear right in front of him, and now the King is gone to. He and T’Challa have never had the best relationship, but he had grown to think about him as a brother after he had saved his life a few years ago.

The remaining avengers continued to slowly make their way back to the city. 

—————-

The last thing Shuri remembered, her lab was being attacked by an large alien. She had tried her best remove the stone from the forehead of the android, but she simply did not have enough time. Then the alien pushed her off the platform and she fell and passed out. 

Once she started to come to, the first thing she realized that much of the fighting outside had stopped. She looked around and realized that that both the android and the alien were gone, and there was a large whole in the window of her lab. She looked around to try and figure out what had happened, who had one, what were the casualties. She looked upon the member of the Dora Milaje who had been with her and noticed something strange. It looked like she was disintegrating. 

“Princess..” She was trying to say before she completely turned to dust. 

Shuri started to make her way through the building, only to witness more members of her royal guard disappear. She immediately ran towards the room where they were keeping her mother and some of the other nobles who were to old to fight. When she got there, she was relieved to see her mother still there. 

“Mother” Shuri yelled and moved towards her.

“Oh Shuri..” Ramonda said as she embraced her daughter in a hug. “what is going on?”

Shuri looked around and saw that some of the other elders had disappeared. People she had known her entire life were just gone. “I don’t know mother.” 

After wandering around the castle for about half an hour they saw that the avengers had returned. Only they didn’t all return, and they did not look very good. She noticed that they all looked very hurt, and she couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be a racoon holding a large machine gun walking with them. But that would have to wait. She kept scanning the group for her brother but did not see her. “Where’s my brother?” She asked them. Waiting for someone to reply. “Where’s T’Challa?” She was starting to get worried, as was Ramonda. 

Okoye walked up them. “My Queen, princess. I’m sorry. The King is gone.” 

“No.” Ramonda let out a large cry. Shuri was standing there in shock. She could not believe it. Her entire life she had thought T’Challa to be invincible. He was amazing in combat and wore a bulletproof panther suit. 

Steve walked over to them. "I am so sorry.” He said. “no one could have seen this coming.” 

———————

It had been a few minutes since Tony had watched the rest of the team disappear right before his eyes. He could not believe they had lost. In the past, even when the odds seemed to be greatly against him, he somehow managed to pull through. But not this time. 

He sat the next the spot where Peter had disappeared. Tony felt very guilty for dragging Peter into this. He couldn’t shake the feeling the that this was somehow his fault. He knew that this would have happened whether or not Peter had gone with him, but he still felt that he never should have allowed the kid to come with him. 

Eventually, the silence was broken when that blue, robotic women said “we need to get off this planet.” 

Tony heard her, but didn’t respond. Instead, his mind went to the Dr. Strange’s last words. “This was the only way.” He had said. Tony found himself repeating that out loud. 

“What?” The alien women responded. 

“Strange, when he disappeared he said that ‘This is the only way.’” 

“So what? He was dying. He’s gone now, along with half the universe. Now we need to leave and get to a habitable planet. The Guardians probably have a ship around here.”

Tony interrupted her. “Earlier he had looked through time and said that there was only one timeline in which we beat Thanos, and then he turned over the Time Stone.”

“To keep you alive. People who care do that sometimes.” Nebula’s mind went to how Gamora gave up the location of the Soul stone to save her. And that had led to her sister’s death. Nebula wished it had been her instead. For one thing Gamora would have been much more useful in this situation. 

“But he said that the he would have let me die before he would hand it over, and yet he did. And I seriously doubt its because he suddenly grew me. He must have seen how we win, and thats why he gave up the stone.”

“We can’t possibly beat him now that he has all the stones. He’s unstoppable.” Nebula responded sharply. She knew very well just how powerful her adoptive father was, and how powerful he would be with all the infinity stones. 

“There must be a way. Or else…”

“Or else what!” She was starting get angrier. “He’s already won, he’s killed half the universe, and he killed ..” She stopped before mentioning Gamora. “He killed you entire team. And if you think that the two of us are going to defeat a mad titan with the most powerful weapon in the universe then you are a bigger idiot then I thought when I saw you trying to take him on.”

“They aren’t all dead though.” Tony replied. He was getting angry to. He was angry about the death of his. He was angry that Thanos had been allowed to win. He knows just how powerful Thanos is. He had tried to take him down before he got the stone, and it ended up with him getting stabbed. “The rest of team will still be on Earth. They can help.”

“Help with what. Half the universe is gone. We can’t do anything for them.”

“We may not be able to be able to save them, but you can be damn well sure we will make sure he pays for every single soul he’s killed. Now are you in, because I know you must be pretty angry at him to come all the way here, whoever you are.”

There was silence. Nebula considered what he had said. She knew that Thanos was more powerful now then ever, and that trying to take him on would be a suicide mission, yet she still remembered the years of torture that he had put her through. She thought of how he had killed Gamora, her sister, just to gain the soul stone, and she thought of the guardians, and even though she would not admit it, she had grown to kind of like them. “Fine. Let’s kill that son of a bitch. On one condition. I get to deliver the final blow.”

“Deal.” 

They began to make their way to the Guardians’ ship, so that they could make there way to Earth, united in there mission to make sure Thanos pays for everything he has done.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valkyrie decides what is next for the surviving Asgardian Refugees. Tony and Nebula start their journey back to Earth. The Avengers try to organize themselves after the battle of Wakanda.

To say that it had been a rough few days for the Asgardians would be an understatement. First, they find out that for the past few years, Loki had been masquerading as Odin. Then Odin dies and Hela, the Goddess of death is able to return to Asgard and take over. Then, in order to stop the her, Thor unleashes Surtur upon Asgard in order to stop her, destroying the planet in the process. What was left of the Asgardians remained on a ship heading to wards Earth. You would think that was enough apocalyptic level events for one week, but then Thanos attacks their ship. They tried to stop him but the effort turned out to be in vain. He destroyed the ship, killed half of their people, along with Loki and Heimdall. He left Thor floating through space. 

What was left of the Asgardians was floating in one peace of their now broken ship. The Valkyrie had taken over the leadership role, as she was the most skilled warrior, however she was having trouble coping. The slaughter of the Asgardians reminded her of how all the other Valkyrie had died, and she was the only one left. She had no idea what had happened to Thor and Hulk. But she knew that was now her duty to to defend what was left of her people. 

Once the engineers on board had fixed their ship up so that they could actually move thought space, one of the Asgardians asked Valkyrie where exactly they should go now. 

“We were on our way to Earth before. Might as well keep up with that course.” She said, followed by he taking a large drink and sitting in the captain’s chair. "Let’s get going.” 

———————-

They managed to find the Guardians’ ship fairly easily. It was right next to the Q-ship that Tony had crashed earlier. They entered the ship and Tony looked around at the alien technology on display. Any other day he would have wished to study the ship to understand how it worked and how he could apply that to his own technology. 

Nebula started to turn on the ship and lock in a course to Earth. “The ship is in good shape, so we should be to arrive at your planet in a few days time.”

“Good.” Tony replied. He went to sit down and tend to his wound. He had to do a makeshift job in order to stop the blood loss, but he would still need to work on it more to make sure it healed completely. After they had left the Atmosphere of Titan, Tony asked “Hey smurfette, is there a med kit of something around here?”

Nebula set the ship on auto-pilot and went over to a cupboard and pulled out a box full of medical supplies. She placed it next to him and sat down. “Let me see your wound.” 

Tony pulled up his shirt just enough to show off the large cut Thanos had left when when he stabbed him with Tony’s own blade. Nebula started to clean off the wound and then pulled out a machine that helped close the wound. Tony saw this and made a mental note to study that device later on. Nebula then helped him bandage his wound. “You’ll be in pain for a few days, you’ll want these.” She handed him some pain medication. “The wound should be healed by next week.”

They both moved up to the cockpit and sat down. “How is it you know Thanos so well?” Tony asked. 

“When I was young, Thanos came to my home-world, slaughtered half my people, and took me in as his daughter. He taught he to fight and do his bidding, and he turned me into this.” She gestured towards the robotic parts of her body. “He used me to help him kill billions, and hunt down the stones. I tried to kill him before he did so, but I failed.”

“Oh.” Tony said, a little shocked at how dark that story seemed to be. After a few moments, Tony asked “So if you grew up with him, you must know about any of his weaknesses. Does he have any? Like can we use some radioactive space rock, or does he get really bad sunburns or something?" 

"You've fought him. You know how efficient he is in combat. And now that he has all 6 stones, he's practically unbeatable."

Tony was trying his hardest to stay optimistic. His mind kept thinking of how everyone had disintegrated right in front of him. And Parker, God, Parker. He couldn't believe that he had allowed this to happen. He knew he had to find out some way to fix this. There had to be. 

They continued to head to earth in awkward silence, briefly interrupted by the odd comment from Tony. 

———————

It had been a few days since the Battle of Wakanda. The country had been trying to organize itself after Thanos’ army attack and he wiped out half the world’s population. Thanks to Wakanda’s advanced technology, they had been able to make good progress in repairing the damages made to the area surrounding the city after the battle. The world outside had not been so lucky. 

Many of the people who disintegrated were driving at that moment, which lead to millions of car crashes, some even fatal. Some were currently piloting planes, and in some very unlucky instances both co-pilots in large commercial planes disappeared, leading to some very deadly plane crashes. Many world leaders and government officials had disappeared, including the U.S. president and a good chunk of the cabinet. The U.S. government remained fairly stable, however some less stable nations had power vacuums occur because of the deaths of their leaders, and even more death occurred.

Wakanda was dealing with its own transfer of power. After the king disappeared, Shuri would be named the new Queen of Wakanda. They would need a leader as soon as possible, so they had organized for her coronation to occur in one week’s time. All of the tribes agreed that there was no need for a challenge on warrior falls, as all of them had much larger needs to attend to. 

After they were able to get communications back up in Wakanda, the Avengers immediately jumped into action to help the outside world in any way they could. They tried to organize governments and organizations, and convince the wealthiest in society to help out with the recovery, but this seemed to be a disaster that would be even harder to recover from. 

Rhodey had been able to make it through to Stark Industries after multiple tries, and was relieved to discover that Pepper was still alive, and she had already been using to resources of Stark Industries to assist with disaster relief. 

“What about Tony?” Pepper asked. “Last I heard from him he got in that huge space ship over New York.” She sounded worried. Rhodey understood. Pepper had always worried that being Iron Man would get him killed one day. They both hoped that she was wrong.

“I’m sorry Pepper but I haven’t heard from him yet. We haven’t seen him at all on our end.” Rhodey replied. 

“Dammit Tony.” Pepper muttered under her breath. 

In different part of the castle, Steve was hitting out all of his anger on a punching bag. The Wakandans had informed him that they had more advanced training equipment that he could use, but he preferred the old fashion method. He used the punching bag right after they brought him back from the ice too. He would sit there and punch out all of his anger. Now he was doing the same, but instead of thinking about how he had left behind his entire generation, he was thinking about how badly they had lost. Bucky, Sam, Wanda, Vision, T’Challa, and who knows who else were all gone. He continued to hit the bag until it’s handle broke and it flew backwards. 

As he moved to set up another bag, Natasha entered the room and moved towards him. “You know its funny, almost this same situation took place when Fury recruited me for the Avengers the first time around.” Steve said. They both let out a little laugh. It felt good to laugh about something. 

“I was just in the comms room.” Nat said. “Not as many car or plane crashes as there could have been, so were are lucky there, I suppose.” No one would say that their situation was truly lucky, but Nat was just trying to look on the bright side. As a spy, Natasha had always been skilled at covering up her emotions. She found that skill useful now. She felt awful, but she knew that she needed to be strong in order to help the world, and the rest of her team.

“Yeah, lucky.” Steve replied, bitterly. He sat down on a bench and Nat moved to sit next to him. “I still can’t believe we lost, and half the universe paid the price.”

“Hey, it isn’t our fault that some alien decided he needed to kill half the universe. We did our best and …”

“And our best wasn’t good enough.” The sat quietly for a few moments. Nat knew he was right. Once Thanos had arrived there was no way they would have been able to stop him. They were only a mild inconvenience to him. Even after Wanda managed to destroy the stone, he just turned back time and took it. 

Nat broke the silence. “Either way, now is not the time to mope. The world needs us, there is chaos on every continent, and we have help the world realize that this is no the end of the world.” Even though it feels like, she thought. 

In another area of the castle, Rocket was desperately trying to contact the rest of his team. The last he saw them they were trying to stop Thanos from getting the reality stone, and when he showed up here on Earth, he had all six. Rocket tried not to let the worst come to mind. 

Before he had met up with the Guardians, Rocket did not care about anyone or anything, except for Groot, of course. He definitely would not have gone all the way to Earth to try and fight an evil alien warlord and his army of “space dogs.” But over the years he spent with them, he grew to love them like family, even Quill, although he would not like to admit it. 

And so the thought of losing them terrified him more then anything, after all, he had to watch Groot die right in front of him twice. He kept trying to contact them to no avail. The communications technology in Wakanda was good, but it did not have what he needed in order to reach his team and their ship. He continued to try and make modifications on the tech when Thor walked in. 

“What are you doing, sweet Rabbit?” Thor asked.

“I’m trying to reach my team. They must be out there. I gotta get to them so that, so that we can regroup and figure what the hell we are going to do now.” Rocket was trying not to let his voice reveal how full of fear and sadness he was. 

“They are a fine team of morons, aren’t they? I’m sure they are alright.”

“Yeah but you can’t know for sure.” Rocket said quietly as he continued to work. 

“I’m sorry about your friend, Tree.” Thor said.

Rocket continued to work and ignored Thor.

“If you need someone to talk to, you know that I’ve dealt with quite a lot of loss myself.”

Rocket smirked at Thor’s comment. He remembered how Thor had said that his entire family, his best friends and half his people had been killed. He felt sorry for him in that moment. Thor lost everyone in his life and yet he still remained optimistic that they could win, and always tried to support his teammates. Rocket does not know what he would do if everyone he loved were gone. 

Rocket continued to work on his communication device the all of the sudden in started smoking. “Dammit!” He yelled.   
“Whats wrong?” Thor asked.

“This stupid comms device isn’t wanting to freaking work. God damn Terran technology, freaking idiots can barely get past there first moron.” Rocket was starting to feel all the emotions he was trying to suppress come out. He started hitting and banging on the device until it definitely couldn’t be used to talk to anyone. “ I need to hear there voices. I need to make sure they are okay. I’ve already lost one friend today, I can’t lose anymore” Rocket said as he started to cry. He hadn’t felt this way since Groot had sacrificed himself for the Guardians on Xandar. 

In that moment Thor came over and started to comfort him. “I’m so sorry, sweet Rabbit.” They sat there in silence as Rocket allowed himself to pour out all of his emotions while Thor listened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gamora wakes up in a strange land. Valkyrie and the Asgardians encounter technical trouble. Shuri makes a discovery.

The last thing Gamora remembered, she was being thrown off the edge of a cliff by her adoptive father. She could not believe this was how it all ended. She had always thought that she might go out in a blaze of glory, on the battlefield with her fellow guardians of the galaxy. She would have preferred that. 

Instead, she is alone, being sacrificed by the adoptive father who claims to love her. The same adoptive father who killed half her people. 

As she fell, time seemed to slow down, and her entire life flashed before her eyes. She remembered being trained by Thanos, executing his goals, fighting with Nebula, and the murder of her family and half her race. 

But she also remembers the good. She remembered the guardians, the people she had not only seen as friends but as family. She remembered Peter, and how he shamelessly flirted with her until he finally managed to win her over with his boyish charm and “pelvic sorcery,” as she had once called it. She remembered Drax, Rocket, Groot, Mantis and Nebula. She wishes she could have spent more time with them. 

When she finally hits the ground, she lets the darkness in and disappears into nothingness. 

When she opens her eyes again, she doesn’t feel anything, which is what immediately tells her something is off. She looks around and notices that she is definitely not on Vormir anymore. The surrounding landscape is all in some sort of orange tint. Everything from the sky to ground she walks on. 

Gamora gets up and starts to walk around. “Hello! Is anyone else here!” She yells. Wherever she is, it is remarkably flat and she can’t see anyone. Yet she continues to yell. Everything about this is strange to her. First of all, she should be dead. Second of all, she has never been on any planets with the same environment as this one. With its fact landscapes and orange sky. 

After a few hours of wandering around, something started to change. She felt her environment shift and her body change. All of the sudden she was a little girl again right before Thanos had murdered half her people. She stood there for a few moments until she heard an all too familiar voice ask “Daughter?”  
She turned around and saw him standing there. What she did not see was the infinity gauntlet that he wore on his hand. As she saw him there, many of the pieces started to be put together for her. After Thanos sacrificed her, her soul became trapped in the soul stone.

Gamora also saw that Thanos looked quite remorseful. She asked wether he managed to accomplish his mission. 

“Yes” he said. He was shocked to see her here. He thought she had died. Whether this was a vision or some trickery played by the soul stone, he could not be sure. 

As Gamora noticed how he looked, she thought of something in that moment. If he truly loved her, and if he truly cares, she may be able to use that to her advantage. But she would have to make sure that he felt the true consequences of his actions. “What did it cost?” She asked. 

“Everything.” Thanos replied as a tear fell down his cheek. Gamora was horrified to hear this. She worried about what this meant for the rest of the guardians. She knew the universe was doomed, but there had to be away to undo this. The infinity Gauntlet made you the most powerful being in the universe, with the ability to bend every aspect of universe. If he could wipe out half they universe with the snap of his fingers, perhaps it could be undone. 

Eventually Thanos left and Gamora was left there, alone. Eventually she shifted back into her present self and she continued to come up with a plan to try and fix everything, even though it may mean that she would have to stay in this soul world forever.

—————-

Valkyrie was in the captain’s chambers drinking from the whiskey that had somehow managed to survive Thanos’ attack. This wasn’t the first time she had to watch her team get destroyed while she somehow survived. When Thanos arrived, Thor had ordered her to get as many civilians away from the battle as possible. She protested but Thor convinced her that she would be a bigger help getting everyone to safety. Some of the Asgardians, along with most of the warriors from Sakaar had managed to get out in the escape pods. Many of the pods were destroyed but some managed to get out. She had no idea what had happened to them now.

Thanos’ ship had caused one large chunk of the ship, containing a portion of the Asgardians and Valkyrie, to break of from the rest. Luckily for them, this portion of the could be reconfigured into a smaller ship with some excellent engineering. Luckily for them, Asgardian engineers were some of the best in the galaxy. 

Once they had broken off from the main ship, they were left alone by Thanos’ forces. Valkyire had wanted to go back and help, but she knew that it would be in vain. Instead, the attack was focused on the larger half, the half containing Thor, Hulk, Loki and Heimdall. Valkyrie had grown to like Thor and Hulk, they had grown a kind of team on there mission to defeat Hela. She even grew somewhat of a liking towards Loki, even though she knew to never trust him. She tried not to think that the worst had happened, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the only member of her team left, for the second time. She took another swig from her drink.

All of a sudden the pilot walked into her cabin. “What is it?” She asked, annoyed by his presence during her “private” time. 

“We have a problem.” He replied. “Although we somehow managed to fix this ship up so that we could move, we do not have enough fuel to make it to earth, and it is far too damaged to survive the trip.”

“Of course something else has to go wrong today. So what is it you suggest we do?”

“Theres a supply station not to far from here. We should use our remaining fuel to head there and get fuel and repair the ship. Maybe we could even get our hands on a better, faster one.” 

“Then set a course.” Valkyrie took another swig from the whiskey. “Maybe they will have something to drink thats better than this crap.” 

———————-

Natasha was getting very worried. Its been two and half weeks since the battle of Wakanda and she still hasn’t heard anything from Clint. Clint had been by her side since she defected to S.H.I.E.L.D. and he always had her back, from undercover infiltration missions to fighting an army of killer robots in a floating city. If she were to lose her oldest friend, on top of losing everyone else, she doesn’t know that she would have been able to uphold her reputation as the “emotional rock” of the group. She may have been trained to hide her true emotions, but she was never trained for this. 

She had tried everything. She attempted to contact the farm, no one answered. She tried contacting him through different intelligence channels, but nothing was successful. She was starting to fear the worst. “Dammit” she said, frustrating after the latest attempt didn’t work. 

“What’s wrong?” She heard someone ask from behind her. She turned around and saw Steve standing there. 

“I’m still trying to get in contact with Clint. None of this crap is working.”

Steve wanted to say that he’s sure Clint was okay, that he has managed to survive quite a lot in the few years he’d known him, but he couldn’t. He knew there was a very large possibility that he could have been part of the 50% of the population who had perished when Thanos snapped his fingers. Just like Bucky, and Sam, and Wanda, and T’Challa. 

Natasha went to the wall and slide down into a sitting position while letting out a large sigh. Steve moved to sit next to her. “He’s always been there for me.” Natasha began. “Before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. I was one of the deadliest spies that the international intelligence agency had ever seen. I had been a thorn in their side for so long, that eventually they had enough. They sent Clint to kill me, but instead he recruited me. He saw that I was more than the killer they made me. When I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. no one trusted me, but he always stood up for me. If he’s gone, then…” She didn’t finish her thought. 

After a moment Steve said “listen, I can’t promise you that Clint is okay. But what I can say is that no matter what, he would want you to be strong and get through this.”

Natasha was silent. She let what Cap had said sink in. She knew he was right. She knew that she had to help out in any way she could.

They sat there for a few more minutes before Cap said “ Come on, they want us in the throne room.” They both got up and made there way to meet the new Queen of Wakanda. 

———————-

Shuri had been named the Queen and protector of Wakanda, which meant she was the new Black Panther. She never wanted this. She had always thought that T’challa would be King until his son or daughter came of age, and then they would take up the mantel of the Black Panther. 

Shuri was okay with this. She was perfectly happy remaining the princess, and working on her inventions in the lab. She never wanted to be involved in politics. 

And yet, now she is the queen. She had mostly ignored her duties, leaving the elders and her mother to deal with running the country. After the battle that mostly just meant cleaning up.

Instead, Shuri was working endlessly in her lab. She had a habit of throwing herself into he work when things went bad. Now she was working on creating a new Black Panther outfit for herself. She knew she had to take up the mantel as the new Queen. She could not have the strength or speed of the Black Panther because her cousin decided to burn down all of the heart-shaped herbs in his brief stint as King. So to compensate for that she was making amendments to the armour. Adding new technology she could use. She already added her wrist blasters to the costume and she had just started working on finding a way to have the suit increase her strength. 

She was working on the suit when Okoye contacted her using the Kimoyo beads. “My Queen. The meeting in the throne room will be starting soon. You should make your way up here.”

“Thank you, General.” 

When Shuri entered the Throne room, everyone was already there. She saw her mother, General Okoye, M’Baku, and the Avengers. Shuri made her way to the throne. She still wasn’t’t used to sitting there. She still thought of it as her brother’s seat. 

Once Shuri sat down, they began to talk about the relief efforts. Clean up after the battle had been going relatively well. Most of the battle took place in the fields outside of the city, so there were no serious damages to the buildings. 

In terms of the fallout of Thanos’ “snap,” Wakanda had been relatively lucky in relation to the rest of the world. Thanks to there small population and advanced technology, they did not fall into the same chaos as the rest of the world. There was a lot of uproar in the immediate aftermath, given that half the population just disappeared, but things began to calm down after a few days. 

The rest of the world could not say the same. In the developed countries, things had remained relatively stable, there were some riots and lot of confusion, but after the Avengers reluctantly explained what had happened to the world, people began to understand what had happened. A lot of people were angry at the Avengers for failing them. They had always relied on them to stop these apocalyptic events, but this time they couldn’t stop them. 

The governments who had signed the Sokovia Accords wished to have the Avengers arrested. You would think that they’d have more important things to do. The governments wanted to send a message that they were still in control. With all the chaos in the world, they thought that the citizens of the world needed that. Wakanda was offering them political asylum.

The meeting continued on with them discussing how they will further recovery programs. They were offering there technological assistance to other countries to help out, but it wasn’t doing much. The problems the world was experiencing could be fixed with vibranium. 

After the meeting, one of the elders walked over to her. “Queen Shuri,” she said. “You must come with us.” 

“What is it?” 

“We will explain later. Just follow us.”

Shuri did as she was asked. She followed them down into the garden where they planted the heart-shaped herb. She didn’t know why she was being brought down her. After the garden was burned, there was no use for it. 

At least, thats what she thought. 

“Look, my Queen. It’s a miracle from Bast.”

In the dirt, Shuri could see what was unmistakably a heart-shaped herb. “That’s impossible. I thought Killmonger burned them all.”

“He did. But the qualities of this plant are quite beyond our understanding. It must be Bast hearing our prayers, and now she has sent a gift.” 

Shuri did not believe this. But there it was, waiting to be used. By her. She knew that was why she was brought down here now. It was tradition for the ruler of Wakanda to take the Heart-shaped herb and be bestowed the strength of the Black Panther. Now it was her time. 

The ceremony was being prepared. The shaman was getting the herb ready to be ingested by the queen. Shuri was just mentally preparing herself. She knew that she would see her brother and her father once she takes it. T’Challa had told her how he saw all the past kings and queens of Wakanda when he took the herb. She wasn’t sure she was ready. She had so many questions for them. 

She got in the dirt when the Shaman requested and took the herb. Then they covered her up and she woke up in a field. She saw that the sky looked a purple colour. She looked over to a tree where she saw a bunch of panthers laying there. As she moved closer she saw that there started turning into all of the previous kings and queens of Wakanda. In the centre she saw her Father. 

“Father!” She yelled as she moved to embrace him in a hug. “Father, I am not ready for this.” She started letting all her emotions out all of the sudden. “I wasn’t meant to be queen. T’Challa was meant to be King.” 

“Shuri,” T’Chaka started. “None of us were ever ready for this. But we all rose to the occasion, as you will.”

Shuri was crying. She had been holding all the emotions in after T’Challa had died and the sight of her Father once again was letting them all out. “I’m not strong enough, father. I can’t do this without T’Challa,”

“You are stronger than you know, my daughter, you can get through this. I know you can. You are so smart. I know that you can fix the problems facing the world right now.”

Shuri squeezed her Father one more time. And then all of the sudden she woke up. She quickly sat up and the shaman and his assistants calmed her down. It had been 2 years since her father died. Seeing him brought back so many emotions from that time. 

However, one thing was bothering her. She was told that she would see all of her ancestors, the former black panthers, yet one of them was missing. Where was T’Challa?


	4. Chapter 4

“Hello!!!?? Helloooooo!!!!” Peter kept calling out to see if there was anyone else around him. He kept walking around trying to find anyone who could help. It hd been what felt like a few hours since he woke up in this strange place, however it was very difficult to tell time when the sky was always an unchanging orange colour. He tried to remember what had happened before he woke up in this place but it was all a hazy memory. He remembered that he had been on a alien planet fighting…. Someone. Mr. Stark was there. He thought he remembered there being a wizard, and a woman with antennae, but that seemed too weird to be true. 

He kept walking around, trying to find anyone or anything that could help him figure out where exactly he is. After a few more hours of walking he got tired and decided to sit down. “Okay lets recap” he said out loud. “You were on an alien planet with Mr. Stark, there were others there. One of them was green, and another one might have been a very large bug who may have tried to lay eggs in me like in those old sci-fi movies. We were fighting some bad guy with a golden glove, kind of like Micheal Jackson. And then, we … lost?” Peter was still unsure of his story. He really couldn’t remember anything. The last thing he remembered with perfect clarity was him jumping out of a school bus to go investigate that big space donut. “Maybe that space ship has something to do with it. Maybe we got abducted and dropped off on this weird planet. That makes sense, right?” Peter still wasn’t sure. None of this seemed real. He wasn’t sure what to do next. There seemed to be no one here with him. But he had to do something. There was always something you could do to fix a terrible situation. 

Peter let out a large yawn. He decided to lay down and get some rest. “I’ll figure out what to do when I wake up.” He said. And with that he let himself fall asleep in this strange world. 

—————-

Shuri was trying to make some improvements to her blasters. She went to pick it up but when she did it she lifted it very high in the air, because they seemed much lighter then they used to. Shuri was still adjusting to her new found strength after she had taken the serum from the herb. She also found that she had a lot more energy that before, able to run faster and longer than she has ever been able to before. I could get used to this, she thought to herself. 

As Shuri worked she continued to put thought into vision. Why wasn’t T’Challa there? He should have been there. The heart-shaped herb allows you to contact you dead relatives and loved-ones, and T’Challa was dead, so why wasn’t he there? After a while she decided to ask someone about it. After she woke up from the vision, she first asked the Shaman about it, but he said that the heart-shaped herb works in mysterious ways, so he wasn’t any help. She knew her questions her could not be answered by science, because if they could then she would have already answered them. She would need to talk with someone with experience in the more mystical realms. The closest person to that in Wakanda would have to be Thor. Shuri made her way to the area of the castle where the Avengers were staying. 

The Avengers had been using Wakanda as a temporary base of operations. They couldn’t go back to there headquarters in New York State because they would be arrested. They had been operating mission from Wakanda in the weeks since the battle. The world still needed superheroes, especially after everything that had happened. They had to deal with some minor super villains trying to do everything from taking over a government to stealing high-tech weaponry from secret facilities. It seemed to help the world knowing that the Avengers were still out there helping out. 

Right now, Steve, Natasha, Rhodey and Rocket had gone to deal with a small terrorist cell that had somehow gotten there hands on some Hydra tech from a few years ago. Rocket had joined them because he had a lot of anger that he needed to expel, and he turned out to be a useful asset to the team, thanks to his tech wizardry, and the fact that a foul-mouthed, machine gun wielding racoon is pretty distracting in the middle a fight. 

Thor and Banner were the ones left in Wakanda, so Shuri made her way to speak with them. They siting at a table eating there lunch when Shuri found them. Bruce was the first one to see her and quickly stood up and tried to greet her awkwardly. Bruce had been a little awkward around her, mostly because he wasn’t exactly sure how to treat the royal family in Wakanda. “Your Highness” he said with a mouthful of food. 

Shuri let out a small giggle. “It is okay, Dr. Banner, you can sit down.” Shuri went to sit down with them and turned towards The God Of Thunder. “Thor, do you know anything about the afterlife?”

Thor seemed a little surprised. “We Asgardians believe in Hel, where souls go after they die. My sister, Hela, is the goddess of Death…” 

“Well then maybe she could help.” Shuri interrupted. Thor seemed confused. “When I took the serum made from the Heart-shaped herb, I had a vision of all of my deceased ancestors. All of the former Black Panthers were there except for my brother. I wan’t to know why. If your sister is the goddess of Death then she must know what happened to him.”

“Well, unfortunately my sister turned out to be evil and wanted to take over the entire universe, so I had to kill her before she could do that.”

“Oh” Shuri responded, a little shocked. She thought that she had a strange family when she had a cousin that she never knew about try to kill her brother. But Thor had to deal with an evil sister, and she also knew about his brother who had caused an alien invasion in New York. 

“Maybe it has something to do with the infinity stones.” Bruce interjected. “I’ve had a bit of experience with the mind stone, and those things do not work like anything else we know of.”

Shuri recalled when she was trying to get the mind stone out of Vision’s head. She also saw that the readings from it were unlike anything she had ever seen. “What are you suggesting, Dr. Banner?”

“I’m not sure. But I think I know someone who might have the answers.”

“Who?”

“This guy I met in New York before I met up with you guys. I think his name was Wong or something. He knew a lot about the infinity stones. If anyone on Earth has the answers, it’s him.”

“Well then we must make our way there.” Thor said, triumphantly. “Come on, we can use the bifrost to travel there quickly.” 

“We should get any equipment we might need before we go. It could be dangerous” Shuri said. Thor agreed. They left to get ready for the trip. A smile started to cross her face. If Dr. Banner is right, then perhaps there is a chance that whatever happened can be reversed. After all , if there is one thing she has learned from these awful past few weeks, its that the infinity stones can do almost anything. 

——————

Tony and Nebula had been traveling for about a week and a half. They had to go slow because it was not safe to go too fast, or to make too many “jumps” at a time, and because they had to conserve fuel. 

Tony and Nebula had been getting to know each other fairly well over the days they have spent together. At first Nebula wasn’t very talkative, and found Stark very annoying, but she was slowly starting to warm up to him, although she would never admit it. She understood his pain. He lost everyone, and yet the worst of it was that he was still alive. Nebula felt the same way about Gamora and the guardians. She should have been the one to fall victim to Thanos’ “snap”, not the guardians. She should have been her that Thanos had killed, not Gamora. Gamora had always been the better one, better at fighting, better at being a hero. Nebula wasn’t sure what being a hero meant. All she wanted was to get revenge on her father for everything he had done to her. The only person she ever loved was her sister. Now Gamora was gone, the Guardians Of The Galaxy were gone, and she was stuck here in their space ship with a wounded Terran. 

There were eating a meal in silence when Tony an alarm started blaring. “What the hell is that?” Tony asked, and then all of the sudden there was a large bang heard through out the ship. They both raced to the cockpit. 

“Dammit!!” Nebula yelled. “We were hit by a piece of debris on the port wing. We need to get it repaired before we can get to Terra.”

“Terra?”

“Earth!” 

“Well there must be some sort of space roadside assitantance, right?”

“There is a station not to far from her. If we make it there then they can repair our ship.”

“How will we get there if our ship is damaged? I don’t suppose there is a tow truck space ship”

Nebula paused for a minute. “Come with me.” She said, leading him down towards the airlock. “You said you were an engineer on Earth. Well you will need to fix the engine on the wing so that it will take us to the station.” Nebula placed one the space suits on him and it instantly covered him with the energy field that would protect him from the vacuum of outer space. “This will keep you safe out there.”

“How am I supposed to fix it? I know nothing about alien space ship!!” Tony protested. 

“You managed to build a suit of highly-weaponized armour out of bunch of spare parts in cave.” Tony had told her about his adventures on Earth during there travels. “No fix this damn ship so we can make it to your God forsaken planet.” She said as she pushed him towards the airlock. Tony reluctantly got in and attached the tether to him so that he would not float away. And then all of the sudden he was pulled into space. 

Once the rope tightened, he saw the damage. Tony moved closer. “Whatever hit us did a real number on you.” He said, talking to the ship. He saw that what appeared to be the engine was leaking some kind of fluid. “That can’t be good.” He summoned what was left of his nano-bot suit to create a laser that he could use to wield the hole in the engine. It wasn’t a very big whole, just a small gash. It took a few minutes to wield it back together. 

“It looks like the engine is operational now. You can come back inside.” Tony heard Nebula say through the radio that was installed in the space suit. Tony made his way back to the airlock and got inside. He took off his space suit and went up to the cockpit. 

“That should last long enough for us to make it to the station.” Nebula said. After a moment she quietly added “Good job.”

“What was that? Does the Tin Woman have a heart?”

“I will kill you.” Nebula responded sharply. 

They set a course for the station and made there way there.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos has another vision of Gamora. Tony and Nebula meet a new ally. Thor, Bruce, Shuri and Okoye talk to Wong.

Thanos had spent the weeks following his victory recovering from the large wound Thor had left in his chest. He managed to use the infinity stones to stop his ax from killing him and to speed up the healing, but he still needed time to rest and recover. That was alright though. He had accomplished the goal which he had dedicated his entire life to. He was finally at peace. 

Or at least he should be. 

Something felt off this entire time. He should be relaxing knowing that he had brought balance to the universe, bur he couldn’t. 

Eventually he got tired and went to sleep, while still wearing the infinity gauntlet. It was the most powerful weapon in the universe, he would be an idiot to part from it for even a second. 

After he fell asleep he found that he had woken up in the strange orange place from the vision he had after he snapped his fingers. He turned around and saw her standing there. Before she was a child, but here she was an adult, sitting on a rock turned away from him. 

As he started to move towards her, Gamora asked “What do you want?” without turning around. 

“Gamora… I’m” Thanos started before Gamora interrupted him. 

“You’re what??? Huh?? You’re sorry you threw me off a cliff!!! It’s too late for that now!!” Gamora was standing up and facing him now.

“I had to. I had to fulfil my destiny, Gamora! I had to bring balance.”

“And now you’ve done it. How does it feel? How does it feel to know that you’ve murdered half of all life in the universe? How does it feel knowing you had to murder me to do it?” 

“I feel…..empty.”

“Well what did you expect!!! You dedicated years, and years of your life to accomplishing this, and that you’ve done it, you have nothing to live for. Nothing to accomplish, now that you’ve succeeded.” Gamora saw that although he was trying to hide it, she had managed to hurt Thanos with her words. She tried her hardest not to smile with pleasure. “I pity you.” She spat out. 

Thanos started to wake up and leave the vision, and as he did, Gamora looked away and let out the smile that she had been holding in. 

———————————-

Both Tony and Nebula were a little annoyed when they were told that the repairs for the ship would take a few hours. The last thing either of them wanted was to spend more than a few minutes at this station.

The place was so full of crime and poverty there wasn’t really any big changes after half of their population disappeared. If anything, the sudden absence of some employees gave the poorer residents new jobs. 

The two of them made there way to a bar. After everything that had happened, Tony desperately needed a drink. They made there way inside and Tony ordered a drink. And then another. And another. He really needed to numb the pain, and he hasn’t had anything to drink in days. Next to them there was a woman who was clearly having a day about as bad as theirs. She had just finished of her 3rd full bottle of one of the strongest whiskeys in the galaxy. 

“What are you looking at?” She asked the. She was wearing white armour and a cape, although it all looked pretty damaged and dirty. Nebula deduced that she must have been in a battle recently. 

“Rough day?” Tony asked. 

“You have no idea.” She answered as she grabbed another bottle, took the cork out with her mouth and took a big swig from it. 

“I know the feeling.” Tony responded. 

“My home planet was destroyed by a giant fire demon, and then the ship containing every remaining member of my species was attacked by a mad titan who killed half my people and the rest of my team, and now I’m stuck in this dump taking to you.” She said. 

Tony was annoyed that she had suggested he didn’t have anything to be upset about, and he would have responded with a snappy comment if Nebula hadn’t spoken up first. “You said you were attacked by a titan. Did he have a golden gauntlet on?”

The woman paused for a moment. “Yes he did. Why?”

“Why did he attack you?”

“I’m not sure. I had gotten out before I had the chance to find out.”

“What planet were you leaving?”

The woman was getting slightly annoyed by all the questions. “Asgard.” She responded sharply. She also noticed that there were a few men in the corner booth of the bar who had been eyeing this robotic blue woman since she walked in. 

Nebula remembered what she had discovered when she was still working for Thanos. The space stone was Asgard after Loki failed to bring it to them. 

“Wait a minute, Asgard? That’s where Thor is from.” Tony realized. 

“You know Thor?” The warrior woman asked. 

“Yeah, I know Thor. He was part of my team. Was he with you on the ship?”

“Yes. But I lost track of him in the attack. For all I know he could be… he could.. I don’t know where he is. All I know is that he must have lost because I haven’t seen him since.”

“And now Thanos has the space stone.” Nebula added.

“The what?”

“He attacked because one of you had the space stone in you possession. That’s all he wanted.”

“Then why did he have to murder half my people?”

“Thats kind of his whole schtick.” Tony added. “killing one half, letting the other live.”

“You seem to know quite a lot about this “Thanos.” She quickly looked to the men who had been eyeing the blue woman earlier. They seemed much angrier and there were two more of them. She looked around and saw that there were a few more people who had joined the room. Something told her this wasn’t going to end well. 

“We just came from a pretty long fight with him. Trying to stop him from doing that seem equalizing BS to the entire universe.”

“Well from the looks of it you didn’t do a very good job.” 

All of the sudden one of the men she spotted from earlier came charging towards the three of them. “This is for my daughter!” He yelled as he swung a electric baton at Nebula. 

Nebula was about to block it with a staff of her own but the Asgardian woman beat her to it, swinging a sword out to block the attack. She then proceeded to push his weapon back so that he was off balance, and she kicked him into one of his charging friends. 

They looked around and saw that the whole bar was getting ready to attack. Tony used his remaining nano-bots to create repulsers on his hands, while Nebula readied her electric blades. “Friends of yours?” Tony asked Nebula. 

“Not now, Stark.” She said as she attacked the nearest opponent with her blade. Tony then started blasting at them with his repulsers as the Asgardian woman made short work of someone who had been stupid enough to attack her head on. 

The three of them continued to defend themselves against their attackers. Tony wasn’t as effective as usual thanks to his wound and lack of a complete suit. Tony hit one guy but didn’t notice that another was charging at him from the side until it was too late. But then he stopped all of the sudden and starting shaking uncontrollably. When he fell, Tony saw Nebula standing there with her blades being used on Tony’s attacker. “Don’t mention it.” She said. 

Soon enough there were only two men left. One of them charged towards the Asgardian, but he was shot in the chest by Tony and he went flying across the room. The last guy was being cornered by the two women. He lifted his weapon up high and yelled towards Nebula that “Your Father Killed My Wife!” And attacked her. Nebula blocked the attack while the Asgardian tripped him so that he was lying on the floor, and Nebula kicked him in the head so that he wouldn’t be bothering them any more. 

The three of them stood there admiring there work when a man entered the bar. “Brunnhilde,” he said towards the Asgardian, “they have finished the repairs on our ship, we can continue our way to Earth.”

“You’re heading to Earth?” Tony asked.

“Thor had suggested that the Asgardian refugees could stay there.”

“Well it just so happens that we are on our way to Earth as well. And I may just know a place where you and all your friends could stay.” 

———————-

Thor and Bruce were already on the field when Shuri and Okoye arrived. Shuri felt that she didn’t need the protection from the general of the Dora Milaje, she was travelling with the God Of Thunder, but Okoye insisted. 

“Are you ready?” Thor asked. Shuri and Okoye nodded in response. “This may fell a little strange.” He said.

“What do you mean strange?” Okoye had started to ask but Thor had already started to transport them to New York. 

The firs thing they noticed were the colours. It truly contained every colour of the rainbow. The other thing they noticed is how it felt like they were being stretched out. It didn’t necessarily hurt, it just felt like they were growing a few inches taller in the span of a few seconds. 

Seconds later they were in New York. Thor, Shuri and Okoye were standing Triumphantly while Bruce looked like he could have been sick. Thor looked towards him, laughed, and said “The Bifrost can have that effect for first-timers sometimes.” Once Bruce started feeling better, he got up and looked around.

“What happened here?”

New York was not the same place it was just a few months ago. The damage from the arrival of the Q-ship, all of the vehicle crashes after Thanos killed half the universe, and the ensuing riots was still all over the place. Clean up effort had been made, but there was still much more work to do. 

They slowly made there way to the Sanctum where Bruce had said Wong was. They all hoped that this man was still alive and not a casualty of Thanos’ “snap.” When they got there Bruce knocked on the door. After a few seconds Wong opened the door. “Bruce.” He seemed shocked to see them. “What are you doing here?”

Shuri spoke before Bruce got the chance. “We need to ask you some question about the Infinity Stones.” 

Wong nodded. “Ah. Come in, Come in.” He said, opening the door to let them all in. 

Once they were all inside, Thor started speaking. “I was here once before with a another wizard. I think his name was Strange.”

“What was so strange about his name?” Shuri asked.

“He means Doctor Strange. I’ve met him too. The last I saw him, he was in that giant space ship that was here.” Bruce replied.

“He has not returned since. And i’m guessing that he failed in keep the Time Stone from Thanos, given the current state of the world.” Wong said. “Come, let’s talk.”

All of the sudden they were all seated at the table with some tea in front of them. Thor was a little more prepared after his conversation with Doctor Strange, but everyone else was kind of shaken up. Okoye the most surprised of all, her battle instincts causing her to grab her spear and be ready for an attack. “What did you need to ask?” Wong said.

Shuri explained her vision, and how she had seen all the former Kings and Queens of Wakanda except for her brother. Bruce explained his theory that death via the infinity stones could be different than normal death, and that is why she did not see him there.

“You are correct, Dr. Banner. Given that half the world disintegrated into dust, I would presume that was primarily the result of the reality stone. However, that does not explain why your brother was not in your vision.” He said, gesturing towards Shuri. 

“Well then what does?” Shuri asked, getting slightly impatient. 

“I have a theory.” Wong started. He disappeared for half a second and then reappeared with a large book in his hand. He started flipping through it before he came across the page he was looking for. “Legend has it that the soul stone was the most powerful all the stones, but it also had some of the strangest qualities. Some say it even had a mind of its own. The soul stone has been known to capture souls and store them within the stone itself. It leaves them on a place some have called ‘Soul World.’”

“Like a pocket dimension.” Bruce started. 

“So what you are saying, is that my brother could be inside the stone itself?” 

“Along with everyone else who Thanos killed. But it’s just a theory.”

“But if you are correct, could there be a way to bring them back?” Thor asked.

“Well no one has ever done it, but I assume it could be possible.” Shuri was smiling, the thought of bringing her Brother back pleased her more than anything. “But in order to do so, you mean need to get the stone first.” 

“So we would have to take it from Thanos.” Thor said.

“Not only that, but the stone exacts a terrible price.”

“What kind of price?” Bruce asked.

“I’m not sure, but from these stories, it sounds like it’s not something you could easily give up.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony, Nebula and Valkyrie arrive back on Earth. Tony reunites with some familiar faces.

When Tony arrived back on Earth, he could not believe that it was the same world that he had left. There was so much destruction everywhere. And the streets of Manhattan looked a lot less crowded then they usually were. Probably due to his failure to stop Thanos. 

Nebula was flying the ship over New York and towards the Avengers compound using the coordinates that Tony provided. The Asgardian ship was not far behind them. He had offered to let the Asgardians stay at the Avengers HQ. There was enough space for all of the remaining Asgardians to be comfortable, and it was located far enough away from any cities that they could get away with parking a large space ship on the lawn. 

When they finally touched down, Tony and Nebula made there way out of the ship to find someone that Tony wasn’t too excited about seeing. 

Pepper was standing there, waiting for him. As he walked towards her, she made her way down to him. Once they were about a foot apart from one another Tony started to speak. 

“Look, I know you must be mad…” He was cut off when Pepper embraced him in a hug. 

After a few more seconds of hugging, Pepper broke it off. “Where have you been? I’ve been so worried about you!” 

“I was on an alien planet trying to stop a giant purple alien from stealing a stone that can control time from a wizard.”

“And I’m guessing that something to do with everything else that’s happened?”

Tony nodded. 

Pepper let out a large sigh. “Of course.” she said under her breath. 

The Asgardian ship started landing behind Tony. 

“What now?” Pepper asked. 

“Well, on the way home, I met a few of Thor’s friends,” Tony started, as he started walking with Pepper towards the ship, with Nebula walking quietly behind. “And they said that they were was blown up but a giant fire monster, so I decided to let them stay here for a while. Considering it isn’t really being used by many of the Avengers right now.”

Almost on cue, the Asgardians started getting of the ship, with Valkyrie in the lead. She wasn’t walking in a straight line and when she approached Tony he could smell the Bourbon on her. 

“Let me introduce you to everyone” Tony said. “The Robo-smurf with me is Nebula, I would advise not upsetting her to much,” Tony added that last comment quietly. “And this is the Valkyrie.”

“Hi” Valkyrie said. 

Pepper was a little hesitant. It wasn’t everyday your fiancé brings goes on a trip to outer space and brings back a bunch of aliens that he says will be staying in your house. 

“Well, I guess now we should get started on the tour..” Tony said, waiting for Pepper’s approval. 

Pepper remained quiet, but nodded her approval. 

Tony gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he lead the remaining Asgardians towards the compound. 

———————

Thor, Shuri, Bruce, and Okoye were on their way out of the Sanctum when one of Okoye’s kimoyo beads started beeping. She let it open up a hologram and let everyone know what she saw. “Something has entered the atmosphere and landed somewhere North-West of here.”

“What now?” Bruce asked. 

“Can you tell where exactly did it land?” Thor asked. 

“I looks like it is going to land at you old Avengers facility.” 

“Well then I guess we are taking abutter trip.” Thor said. “Get ready everyone.”

“Oh no, not..” Bruce started until he was cut off by Thor activating the Bifrost again. One second later they had arrived on the lawn of the Avengers Facility. 

“It looks exactly like I remembered it.” Thor said. 

“Uh, those weren’t there earlier.” Bruce said, looking towards the two space ships that were parked on the lawn. 

Thor looked at the smaller ship. “This ship belonged to the Guardians of the Galaxy.” He exclaimed. “The Rabbit will be so happy.”

Bruce was looking at the other ship that was further behind. “Thor, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the ship we were on when Thanos attacked us?”

Thor looked at it and realized that it did look a lot like a piece of the Asgardian Refugee vessel. Thor was going to say something when someone behind him yelled “Your Highness?”

Both Shuri and Thor turned towards the voice. Standing there was Valkyrie, in the same armour she was wearing the day they had been attacked, holding her hand above her eyes to block out the sun. She started to walking towards him in shock. Behind her, some of the Asgardians saw Thor standing there and got very excited that there King was still alive. Thor was shocked that there were any Asgardians left to call him King, and he definitely did not expect to see them on Earth in the Avengers compound. He walked towards Valkyrie and met her in the middle of the field. 

“I’m glad your not dead” She said.

“I’m glad you’re not dead” Thor replied, somewhat awkwardly. 

“I’m not dead either.” Bruce said from behind Thor. 

Valkyrie saw him and nodded towards him. “Hey.” She paused for a second before getting a confused look on her face and saying “So you never told me what the whole deal is with you and Hulk.” 

“It’s a long story.” Banner responded. 

“How did you get here?” Thor asked. 

“We had a little help.” She said. Then she turned towards the compound. “Come on.” She started leading them to the rest of the Asgardians. 

Once inside, Thor saw how many of his people he had lost. He can’t believe he allowed this to happen. “When we left Asgard, there were almost 200 Asgardians on the Refugee ship, now we barely have 50.” He said, sadly. 

Shuri understood his pain. In the short time she had been Queen she understood the stress that came with ruling. “I’m sorry you had to go through this. A good ruler always wants to protect their people.” She said to him.

Thor smiled at her. “Thank you, young Queen.” 

Over by the kitchen they saw Tony, preparing a drink for himself and Pepper who was sitting by the Island. He turned, saw them and paused for a minute. Bruce was the first to say something.

“Tony,” 

“Hey guys.” He said. “Want a drink?”

“Always.” Valkyrie said quickly and walked towards them. Tony offered her a glass but she just took the bottle and starting drinking straight from that. Tony was a little shocked but adjusted. 

“Hey Thor. Long time no see. Like the new hair cut.” He said. 

“What happened to you guys?” Bruce asked. Last I saw you were..”

“Chasing after a flying donut? Yeah. Well after me and the….” Tony paused for a second, and had a painful look on his face. “After me and the kid rescued Strange, we arrived on Titan, fought Thanos, and lost. He took the time stone and left us on that deserted planet. We had t hijack a ship to get back here, and on the way we met your friend here.” He said, gesturing towards Valkyrie. 

“Who’s we?” Bruce asked. 

“Me and the angry blueberry over there.” They turned and saw a blue, alien woman with a lot of metal parts attached to her, siting in a nearby chair, using a screwdriver to calibrate her robotic arm. 

“And what about Strange? And the Spider-boy?” Bruce asked. 

“Spider-man.” Tony corrected him. 

“I’m sorry. He just sounded kind of young.”

“Yeah, I know.” Tony replied. “He uh, he didn’t make it.” Pepper put her hand on Tony’s arm. “Neither did Strange.” 

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

Tony was quiet for a moment. “Anyway, what have you guys been up to? I heard you guys were staying in Wakanda for a while.” He said this while looking towards Shuri and Okoye. 

“Yeah. The U.S. government, and everyone else isn’t exactly very happy with us right now.” Bruce said. 

“And is the King still running around in that Cat suit?” 

“King T’Challa is gone.” Okoye said sharply. Shuri winced when he said that. “Shuri is queen now.” 

“Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that.” Tony said. Tony waited a few minutes before saying “I would love to visit Wakanda some day. I’ve always wondered how you were able to make the vibranium in the Black Panther suit bend the way it does. I’d love to speak with whoever made it. You think I could meet him if I ever visit?” Tony asked.

Shuri smirked and stepped towards him. “You already have.” She said. “And the suit is made from a vibranium nanite weave.” 

“And it’s still bullet-proof?”

“Yep. And it can absorb kinetic energy and redistribute it upon enemies in battle.” Shuri said this all with a smile. “But don’t worry, your suits are still adequate.” Tony tried his best not to look too shocked, but the look on Shuri’s face told him he wasn’t doing a very good job. Okoye couldn’t help but let out a tiny smirk. Thor laughed loudly. 

Nebula was getting annoyed. She stood up and walked towards Tony. “So these are the people were are supposed to go after Thanos with? There are not nearly enough of them.”

“Well this isn’t everyone.” Tony responded. 

“Wait a minute Tony, you want to go after Thanos?” Bruce interupted, a little shocked that Tony would do something so stupid. 

“Yes. We are going to hunt down Thanos, get that glove of his, and figure out how to fix it.” Tony explained. 

“And then I am going to kill my father for everything he has done.” Nebula added. 

“Wait, your father?!?” Bruce asked, shocked. 

“Then you must know Gamora!!” Thor said. “Your sister Gamora and her team saved me from the wreck of my ship.” 

“Yes, I knew her.” Nebula said. “Thanos sacrificed her in order to gain the soul stone.”

“Oh,” Thor said. He moved to put his hand on her shoulder and said “I’m sorry for your loss.” 

Nebula shook Thor’s hand off her shoulder. “Don’t pity me.” She said.

“Wait a minute.” Shuri said. “What do you mean he sacrificed her for the soul stone.”

“Thanos took Gamora to Vormir, and Thanos returned with the soul stone. Without Gamora” Nebula looked a way for a moment. “He said that he had to do it.”

“That must be the price then.” Bruce said slowly as he pieced it together. 

“A soul for a soul.” Thor said. 

They all realized what this meant. If they wanted to save everyone, someone would need to be sacrificed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos regrets some of his choices. All of the surviving Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy reunite in Wakanda.

This was the 7th time Thanos had a vision of Gamora. At first he thought they were only dreams, but it all felt to real to be a dream. She seemed exactly like he he remembered her. She had such a fiery spirit. And she always wanted to help people. If only Thanos could make her see that he was trying to help people. He had always told her that the universe required balance, why did she never understand that. 

This particular time, she was once again in her adult body. She was sitting on the ground, as if she was waiting for him to show up. “What do you want now?” She asked, annoyed. 

“Gamora, I just wanted to see you.”

“And why would you want that?”

“Because you’re my daughter.”

“If that’s so then why did you murder me?” 

“I had to.”

“You had to!?! Throwing someone off a cliff isn’t love.”

Thanos was starting to get annoyed. Every single time he had this vision, it was like this. “I have taken care of you since you were a little girl! I trained you to become the fiercest woman in the galaxy, and this is how you thank me!”

“That’s not love. That is you wanting another person to do your bidding. You killed half my people. You kidnapped me, and turned me into a murderer.”

“I also feed you, and gave you a place to sleep. I cared for you more than any of my other children. If that’s not love, than what is?”

“Love is knowing that you would do anything for that person. Anything to protect that person. I know because that’s how I felt for Peter.” Gamora’s voiced started to crack. Thinking about Peter and the rest of the Guardians got her emotional. She had no idea if they had survived Thanos’ genocide or not. 

“He tried to kill you,”

“To stop you.”

“He tried to murder a loved one to serve a higher purpose, how is that any different than what I did?”

“Because I told him to. And I could tell that doing this was the hardest thing he had ever done. And his goal wasn’t to murder half the galaxy.”

“Once again, I was making a sacrifice in order to serve a high purpose.”

“It can’t be that much of a higher purpose. Tell me, what happened after you did it?”

Thanos paused for a minute. He began to speak hesitantly “People crashed their vehicles, there were riots, many more were killed.”

“You thought that doing what you did would bring balance, but it just brought more death.”

Thanos didn’t say anything for a while. Did he really make a mistake? No, thats not possible, there may be chaos now, but in the long term, there will be balance. 

“I did love you.” He said eventually. 

“Right.” Gamora replied sharply. 

Thanos opened his mouth to respond before the vision started collapsing and he woke up with a start. He heard explosions in the distance. 

He moved outside his hut to see what was going on. He was under attack by a space craft that was flying by and dropping bombs. The bombs had almost made it to Thanos before he used the power stone to stop them and shoot the explosive energy back at the ship. It narrowly managed to dodge the oncoming flames.

Thanos had been under attack quite a lot after what he did. There were a lot of people upset with what he did, and some of them wanted revenge. The smartest of them had managed to track him down.

The ship was coming for another pass when Thanos pointed the Gauntlet at it, and used the reality stop to turn the ship into a cloud of smoke. The pilot fell a few metres from Thanos. The pilot quickly got up and started charging at him. Thanos decided to use the soul stone to trap his soul, as he had already done to half the universe. He pointed the gauntlet at the attacker and closed his fist, but nothing happened. He tried again, yet still nothing. He managed to block the attack at the last minute and then punch the attacker far away from him. He wouldn’t be getting up for a while. Thanos was more intrigued by his gauntlet. Why wasn’t it working. He pointed it at the pilot one more time and tried again. This time it did seem to work, but it caused Thanos a small amount of pain, and the process took much longer than it should have. 

Thanos could tell that something was wrong. 

Why was the stone resisting his commands?

——————-

Tony, Thor, Bruce, Shuri, Okoye, Nebula, and Valkyrie were all moving out onto the lawn. They were going back to Wakanda to discuss what their next move will be with the remaining Avengers. They all had a lot to discuss.

Pepper was trailing slightly behind them. Tony stepped away from the rest of the group and turned to speak with her. “I know what you’re going to say..”

“I know, Tony. I know you have to do this. Just, please don’t die.”

“I won’t.” Tony responded. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Pepper said, and then gave him a kiss. 

As Tony went to join the rest of the team, Pepper yelled “And be nice!” Tony just smirked as Thor activated the bifrost and instantly transported all of them to Asgard. 

Once they arrived in Wakanda, they began heading towards the castle. On the way, they noticed that the Quintet was on the landing pad. This means that the team was back. 

Once they entered the castle, Tony saw what remained of the Avengers. Pepper had already told him who had survived, but he was still quite shocked. The team used to be so triumphant and heroic, now they looked like they had just gone to hell and back. In some ways, they had.

Steve walked up to Tony. This was the first time they had seen each other since their falling out. Neither of them felt that they were ready for it, but they knew that they had to put their own feelings aside for the time being. The others watched them carefully. “Tony.” Steve said.

“Cap.”

“I’m glad you’re okay.” 

“I wouldn’t say okay, but I’m alive.” Tony responded. After a moment he said, “I’m glad you’re not dead either.”

“Thanks Tony.” 

“Quick question,” Tony said after a few seconds of silence, “Why is there a Raccoon with you guys?” He looked towards the animal who seemed to be giving him a dirty look.

“I’m not a raccoon!” Rocket yelled.

“You Talk!” Tony was shocked. He had seen some strange things in his life time, but this was up their among his weirdest experience. 

“Rocket here is a noble warrior.” Thor said as he walked towards the group. “He helped me create my new ax, and was a great help in battle.”

“You bet your ass I was.” Rocket was going to make another comment before he saw Nebula standing behind the rest of the group. “Nebula,” He said, hesitantly, and walked towards her. “Have you heard anything from the rest of the Guardians? I haven’t been able to contact them?”

Nebula looked away. 

“No..” Rocket muttered out.

“Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone.”

“No…”

“And the rest of your team…”

“No.”

“Were gone when Thanos won.”

“NO!” He yelled, on the verge of tears. He had already lost Groot, he couldn’t have lost everyone else. He sunk to his knees. Everyone else watched as he grieved for his friends. His family. “No, they can’t be gone. They can’t.” 

Everyone somewhat understood what he was going through. They had all lost someone. What they didn’t understand is that he had lost everyone he had ever cared about. Except Thor, he had lost his father, mother, brother, best friend, and planet. He knew very well what it was like to lose everyone. He moved next to Rocket. “Rabbit, I’m sorry for your loss. They were a fine team of morons.” 

Tony wasn’t so sure that he would define his temporary allies on Titan a “fine” team, and was almost going to comment that before Nebula gave him a death glare. She had gotten pretty good a predicting when Tony would make a sarcastic comment in their time alone together. 

Thor sat their attempting to comfort Rocket as he grieved. Steve looked away and said “let’s give them some privacy.” They all silently agreed and moved to a different room. 

A few servants moved towards the group. “They will take you to your living quarters,” Shuri said to Tony, Nebula and Valkyrie. “In 2 hours, everyone meet in the Throne room, we have a lot to discuss.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawkeye infiltrates a Hydra cell. The Avengers discuss what they will do next.

Clint pulled the arrow back as he aimed it towards the head of the nearby Hydra agent. He was waiting for the perfect moment to let the arrow fly. Once he infiltrated this base, and found out its secrets, he could finally go home. 

He had been working on this mission for months. He remembers when Nick Fury showed up at his house, offering him a job. At first he was hesitant, but then he heard what the mission was. 

Apparently Fury heard rumours in some old intelligence channels about a secret Hydra device that would could allow them to rise to become a major world power once again. They could not allow this to happen. Nick said that he couldn’t ask Tony and the Avengers to do this because he needed someone who wouldn’t attract attention, and he knew that Steve, Natasha and Sam were busy with other missions of their own. When Clint asked about being on house arrest, Fury said he would “handle it” and that he would keep his family safe. 

So Clint reluctantly agreed, and Fury gave him all the information he needed to get started. Over the next four months, Clint worked on finding this machine. The Hydra networks were small, so Clint had to work hard to find them. But finally he was at the base that supposedly had the machine. 

Once he finished this he could finally go home. When he saw that half of the world’s population had suddenly disappeared, he immediately worried about his family. He tried to contact Fury but had no luck. He tried not to fear the worst, but he knew that he was almost done with his mission, and from what he had heard, this machine could possibly be much worse than what had happened, if Hydra’s plans would come to fruition. So he decided to put his feelings and fears to side for the sake of the greater good. 

He waited until his target was separated from the rest of the patrol. Finally the other two guards were looking away and at a distance so that they would not hear the body drop. Clint let the arrow fly.

The arrow hit him right in his head and he immediately fell down with a thud. One of the other guards heard and started moving towards his fallen comrade. Hawkeye quickly pulled out another arrow, aimed, and shot it at him. He went down. One guard left. Clint moved to get a better angle at him. The guard was clueless. He kept to his patrol. Clint shot another arrow and he went down. Too easy, he thought to himself. 

Clint walked towards the door and placed a bomb that would blow the door open. He stepped back. He knew once he detonated the bomb that all of the Hydra agents in the facility would be alerted to his presence. He readied a few arrows on his quiver. He let out a breath, and detonated the bomb. 

The door went flying into the facility, he heard shouting. He moved into the building. He saw three guards armed with some high-tech weaponry. He quickly pulled up his bow and shot two of them in the head with his arrows as he ran towards him. The last guy aimed his weapon at Clint, was already to close. He pushed the barrel to the side, hit the guy in the chest with his bow, grabbed him and threw him on the ground. Then he shot an arrow at him so that he would not get back up. 

Clint turned down another hallway. More Hydra guards. He was able to make short work of them. He pushed open a door. Walking towards him was a large Hydra agent armed with an exo-suit that gave him increased strength. He punched towards Clint, but Hawkeye dodged the attack and jabbed him the side. He then took his bow and hit him the back of the knee, causing the agent to fall to his knee. Clint saw another agent moving towards him, so he quickly readied an arrow and shot at him so that he could continue fighting the big guy. 

When he turned around he saw that the Agent with eco-suit had gotten up and was a little too close for comfort. He grabbed Clint and pushed him into the wall, and then threw him at the other one. When he came to attack him again, Hawkeye rolled out of the way, drew a trick arrow, and shot it at his attacker. He watched as the Hydra guard got shocked by his arrow, and then fall to the ground. He slowly stood up. “I’m getting too old for this.” He said to no one in particular. 

He moved further into the facility, taking down a few more Hydra guards. Eventually he made it into the laboratory. In there, a scientist was trying to destroy his work. Hawkeye pulled out an Arrow and shot it so that he sleeve of the scientists lab coat would be stuck to the desk. The Scientist looked over at him in shock. Clint pulled out another Arrow and aimed it at the Scientist.

“Where is the machine?” Clint asked angrily. 

“What machine?” The scientist asked, terrified. This guy did not have the typical “do or die” attitude of most Hydra agents.

“You know the one! Where is it? You don’t wanna end up like your friends out there, do you?” Clint was trying to sound a little friendly for this guy. He was obviously scared out of his mind and Clint could use that. He was probably just a regular scientist that Hydra had radicalized for their cause.

“Fine, fine. It’s right here.” He was shaking. He ripped his sleeve from the desk and moved over to another one. He grabbed what looked like a circular device with some straps attached. He shakes as he held it for Clint. Clint put the arrow back in his quiver and took the device, and examined it further. He thought that this supposedly dangerous machine would look more like the other doomsday machines he dealt with when he was in New York or Sokovia. 

“What does it do?” 

“Hydra wanted me to… create a device. A device that would allow them to rise to power again.”

“And how does it do that?”

“By making sure that no one stopped them in the first place.”

Clint was confused. How would this device manage to do that. “How?”

“Time travel. They wanted to travel back in time and fix their mistakes.”

Clint was starting to understand. Now he knew why it was so important to find this. This was a game-changer. “Does it work?”

“No. It was missing something. It can take people with it through time, by storing their atoms in it as it would theoretically move very fast through time and space, but I never actually managed to get it to travel through time. There was a missing part in the equation. I needed data I didn’t have. Data about different realms and realities.”

“Thanks for your help.” Clint says as he punched the guy in the face, knocking him out. He left him there as he moved his way out of the facility, thinking about what he had just discovered. 

“First Fury asks you to take up this top secret assignment,” he said, thinking out loud. “Then you spend four months away from you family, trying to find this stupid device, then half of the world’s people disappear, and now you have to deal with some time travel device. I thought you were retired, old man.” He said to himself. 

As he left the facility, he started thinking about what he would do with his new discovery. He couldn’t reach Fury, and he didn’t know where Fury had hidden his family. The only other people he could trust were the Avengers. And he figured that they could possibly use this device to their advantage, if he knew Tony. 

“I guess I’m going to Wakanda, then.”

———————————

Tony, Steve, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, Shuri, Okoye, Rhodey, Nebula, Valkyrie and Rocket were all sitting silently in the throne room. 

“Alright,” Shuri said, breaking the silence. “We have a lot to discuss.”

“Like how we are going to find that maniac, steal his glove, and tear him limb from limb.” Rocket said, angrily. Everyone remembered how he had broken down upon hearing that his team had all died. 

“Now is not the time for revenge,” Steve said. “We need to…”

“Actually the Racoon is right.” Tony said. Steve looked over at him.

“I’m not a raccoon!”

“Whatever.” Tony said. “We need to find Thanos, and fix this.”

“Tony, we can’t beat him. We need to help the world recover after what just happened.” Steve said.

“Listen, before Strange died, he used that magic necklace of his to see all the possible timelines. He said there was only one in which we beat that son of bitch. And then he gave up the time stone to save me. He said ‘This was the only way.’”

“So you think that he needed to get all of the stones so that we could beat him later?” Natasha asked. 

“Exactly. Now that we are all here, we need to figure out how to beat him, and fix this.” 

“We may know how to fix this.” Bruce interjected. We went to talk to Wong, and he said that the souls of everyone who disappeared could be stuck inside the stone.”

“And maybe if we get the stone, we can bring everyone back.” Shuri said. Everyone lifted their heads up. They were all exicted at the prospect of their lost loved ones coming back. 

“But in order to do that, we need to beat an unbeatable man, and then we need to sacrifice a soul of our own in order to use it.” Valkyrie said abruptly. “So how do you propose we do that?” She asked as she took a sip from her flask.

“Are you ever not drinking?” Tony asked accusingly. 

“No.”

“Well does Thanos have any weaknesses? Anything that we could use against him?” Rhodey asked. 

Tony and Rocket looked towards Nebula. If anyone knew about his weaknesses, it would be her. 

“My father is very formidable. And now that he all the stones, he is practically unbeatable. His only weakness was how often he relied on others to do his work, and…” Nebula paused for a moment. “And how much he cared for Gamora. But she’s gone now, and so are all of Thanos’ Black Order.” 

“Thor almost stopped him with his hammer.” Steve said. 

“I had the jump on him.” Thor explained. “It would be a lot more difficult to defeat him one-on-one. And we don’t even know where he is.”

“There are few planets that he always thought were beautiful.” Nebula said. “He always wanted to ‘retire’ there. He would probably be on one of of those planets.”

They were all silent for a few minutes. Trying to come up with a plan to defeat Thanos. 

“Alright, heres what I’ve got.” Tony said after a few minutes. “We get the jump on him, do not allow him to close his fist. He does that and we are all dead in seconds. He pin him down, and take the gauntlet.”

“That’s easier said then done, Tony.” Steve replied. 

“Well do you have a better idea, Rogers?” Tony asked sharply. Everyone could sense the elephant in the room but no one really wanted to address it. 

“Listen boys,” Natasha interrupted. “If we want to actually beat Thanos, you to need to get along and play nice.” 

There was a lot of tension for a few moments, interrupted by Okoye’s Kimoyo beads beeping. She said she needed to leave for a moment to deal with an urgent matter at the border, but that the rest of them must not be worried about it. 

After a few seconds of silence, Shuri decided to speak. “Alright. You two colonizers need to stop with this nonsense. There are bigger issues to deal with here, and this chair isn’t exactly very comfortable to sit in. And you are in Wakanda now so you need to answer to me.” Shuri knew that she would have to make sure that people stayed focused on what is important. And now that she is queen she would need to be more firm with her stances.

“She’s right.” Nebula said. “You can’t be arguing when you fight Thanos. He will find that weakness and use it to destroy you.”

“He will destroy us whether or not we are fighting.” Valkyrie said. 

“We need more information.” Bruce said. “We need more information on Thanos, his armies, his skills, the stones. And we need to know how we are supposed to beat Thanos in this one timeline where we win.”

“Well unfortunately the time stone is with Thanos and the good doctor is gone.” Tony said. “So we can’t exactly go ask him, can we?”

“Well I may be able to help with that.” A voice said from the door way. Everyone looked over.

Okoye was standing there with Clint. A smile crawled across Natasha’s face. “Hey, Clint.” She said.

“Hey, Nat. I like your hair.” He moved to the rest of the group. The Avengers greeted him, happy to know that he had survived. 

“Have been standing there, waiting to make a dramatic entrance?” Tony asked. 

“I guess I just got the timing right?” He replied. “So what, I retire and all of the sudden you guys start the apocalypse.” He said with a smirk.

“How’s the family?” Natasha asked.

“I managed to contact them on the way over. They are all alive.” Everyone was glad. Too many people they knew were dead already. “Hey why is there a raccoon siting with you guys?”

“I’m not a raccoon!” 

Before anyone could say anything else, Okoye started speaking. “We found him at the border and brought him hear. He said he has something important to tell us.”

“What is it?” Steve asked. 

“Fury had me working a mission. Apparently Hydra has been developing a new device.” He pulled out a metallic disc from his pocket that had a few straps attached to it and threw it towards Tony. “A device that could allow people to travel through time.”

“Does it work?” Bruce asked.

“No, he said he needed more data from other realms or something.” 

“Well, we have three of the greatest scientific minds in the world sitting right here.” Steve said, referring to Shuri, Tony, and Bruce. Tony couldn’t help but let out a small smirk. 

“We can use my lab to investigate it.” Shuri said.

“And once you have it working, what do you suppose we do with it?” Natasha asked.

“We hunt Thanos down and kill him before he gets the stones and kills everyone.” Rocket said. 

“That wouldn’t work, you stupid fox.” Nebula said.

“Why not?” Rocket asked, sounding disappointed. 

“Because that would create paradoxes in the timeline. We don’t want those.” Bruce answered. 

“Well then what do you morons suggest we do?” Rocket asked.

“We go back, study Thanos and his armies, and talk to this Doctor Strange before he dies and find out how to beat Thanos.” Steve answered.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanos tries to figure out why the soul stone is resisting him. Tony, Shuri and Bruce work together on the Time Machine.

Thanos walked out of the portal onto the planet Vormir, where he first acquired the soul stone. It being here again. Last time he was on this planet, he lost his favourite daughter. 

He walked to where he had met the stone guardian, the man with the red skull. He had to find out why the soul stone wasn’t working for him. If anyone knew, it would be the stone keeper. 

“Thanos.” The Red Skull said. “You’ve returned.”

“Yes. I have a few questions for you.”

“You are wondering why the soul stone is resisting you.”

Thanos was surprised that he knew what his issue was, although he did know that the stone guardian had a strange connection to the soul stone. “Yes. I need to know why.”

Red Skull turned around and started walking towards the spot where Thanos had thrown Gamora off the edge of a cliff. Thanos followed. “The Soul stone is the most powerful and mysterious of all the infinity stones.” Red skull started. “Some say it even has a mind of it’s own.” Thanos looked at the orange stone on his gauntlet. He always knew there was something different about it compared to the other stones. “It can detect how one feels, and if they are at peace in themselves.”

“So what does this all mean?” Thanos asked. He was getting impatient.

“It senses that you are not at peace.”

“Not at peace with what?”

“Not at peace with your choices. Your choice to slaughter half the universe, and your choice to sacrifice your daughter.” Thanos looked away. The thought of what he was forced to do to his daughter still makes him upset. “It sense the pain in your memories of that day, and it feels that you wish to reverse what happened.”

Thanos looked up. “Is that possible?”

“That I do not have an answer for.” 

Thanos thought about it for a minute. He had already accomplished his goals. He could use the time stone to try and bring back Gamora. He stepped towards the edge.

He put his fist forward and used the time stone to turn back time in this spot to the moment right before Gamora fell to her death. 

“Gamora.” Thanos said, happy to see his daughter alive again. He still had the time stone activated, so she was frozen there. Thanos moved towards her was about to drop his hold on time when he looked at his gauntlet. 

The soul stone was no longer there. Thanos was disappointed. He thought he would be able to undo his actions, but it turned out that he could not fix them. This was the price for fulfilling his destiny. 

Thanos moved time once again to the present and the soul stone had reappeared on his gauntlet. There was a tear falling down his cheek that he wiped away. 

“You cannot fix what you’ve done.” Red Skull said. “The stone demanded a sacrifice, and the sacrifice cannot be undone without losing the stone.”

Thanos was angry. He grabbed the stone guardian by the neck and lifted him in the air. He stared at him with a look of death in his eyes, but ultimately dropped him. 

Thanos teleported back to his house. He decided to test out the soul stone, to see if anything had changed. He teleported to another populated planet. He saw a Kree farmer nearby, minding his own business. Thanos pointed the gauntlet at him, and told the stone to take his soul. 

For a minute nothing happened. Thanos tried again. Still nothing. He tried one last time, and the gauntlet finally worked the way it was supposed to. The farmer turned to dust.

Thanos looked at his gauntlet. The soul stone was resisting him even more now. Is this what his destiny would cost him? First his favourite daughter, and now he was doubting his choices, and the soul stone was resisting him.

Thanos knew he had to fix this somehow, he just didn’t know how.

—————————-

Shuri, Tony and Bruce were hard at work in Shuri’s lab. They were all investigating the time travel device that Clint brought to them. The first thing they managed to do was reverse-engineer it so that they could figure out how it was made and create more of them. That way, once they figured out how to actually get it to work, they could allow multiple people to use one. 

The three scientists were currently trying to figure out how to allow it to actually travel through time. Clint had said that more data was needed. They were trying to figure out what data they needed to make it work. 

Bruce had just finished another simulation. The screen read “unsuccessful.” Shuri walked over to him.

“You can’t be treating this like normal science, Dr. Banner. You need to be thinking outside the box.” Shuri said.

“I know, but we don’t know where outside the box we are supposed to be looking.” Bruce replied.

“I might have something.” Tony said. Both Shuri and Bruce looked at him. “When Natasha decided to dump all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s data onto the internet, their data on realms and other “outside the box” science as her highness put it, went out with it. The secret could be in their somewhere.”

“That’s thousands of documents.” Bruce said. “You’re asking us to find a needle in a haystack.”

“Don’t worry, F.R.I.D.A.Y. is helping out. She’s also looking into the research of any other scientists who have worked with different realms and realities. She will notify us if there is anything noteworthy.” 

After a few minutes, F.R.I.D.A.Y. said “Boss, I think I found something.”

They all came over to look at the screen. “Last year, Dr. Hank Pym, creator of the the Pym particle, began exploring the quantum realm and documented it.” 

“The Quantum Realm?” Bruce asked.

“It’s the realm that one enters when they shrink to be less than the size of an atom.” The A.I. continued. “He documented that many aspects of reality work strangely in this realm, including time.”

“What do you mean that time works strangely?” Shuri asked, intrigued. 

“Some times it slowed, in other instances it sped up.”

“So, can we use it to make this time machine work?” Tony asked.

“I need more data to determine. We will need to access Dr. Pym’s personal computer and speak to Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne, who explored the Quantum Realm with him.” 

“Scott Lang, you mean that Ant guy. Wasn’t he in the Raft?” Tony asked. He vaguely remembered him during the airport battle with the two factions of the Avengers. 

“He took a deal to be put on house arrest. However, he has escaped and is currently on the run. Ms. Van Dyne and Mr Pym are with him.” 

“Well then we need to find them.” Tony said.

“My people can help with that.” Shuri suggested. 

“Let’s hope this is what we need to make this machine work.” Bruce said.

————————————-

It didn’t take long for the Wakandans to find Pym, Lang and Van Dyne. They were hiding out in a hotel in Atlanta. Tony, Shuri, and Okoye decided to take one of the Wakandan jets to go find them instead of Thor’s magic bifrost bridge because it was more low profile, and didn’t make them feel sick to their stomachs. Steve came along with them because they knew that Pym and Lang would not trust Tony.

They landed the jet in stealth mode on top of the building. The hotel was fairly tall, although it was not a very nice one. It was low profile, perfect for people on the run. The four of them went down the elevator to their floor. They walked up to their room and knocked on the door. No one answered for a few seconds. Tony knocked again. 

All of the sudden Scott Lang opened the door. “Captain America, what are you doing here?” He said quite loudly. Scott looked at the rest of the group. “What’s going on?”

“We need your help, Scott.” Steve responded. “And keep your voice down, we are trying to be low profile.”  
“Oh right, sorry. Come in, come in.” He said, holding the door open for them. The group walked in. Scott gave Tony the stink eye as he passed by. 

As they walk in they saw an older man, probably in his 70s with a younger, dark haired, woman. 

The older man looked up. “Stark? What are you doing here?” He had a somewhat angry tone. Tony knew that Dr. Pym didn’t have a very good history with his father. 

“I should ask you the same question. Pym Technologies must not be doing to hot these days.” Tony replied sarcastically. 

“We are hiding out here after you arrested Scott.” The younger woman said. That must be Hope, Pym’s daughter. 

“And now, we are trying to figure out how the world has gone to shit.” Hank continued. “I assume you know something about that.” Tony looked down in shame. 

“Alright look. The world did go to shit. We failed. But now, we may have a way to fix things, or something, and we need your help to do it.” Tony said. He was slightly agitated. 

“Why should we trust you? How do we know you won’t just throw us in jail again?” Scott asked. 

“Because I’m asking too.” Steve said. “Look, I know you don’t trust Tony. But right now we all need to put aside our differences and work together to fix this.” 

Scott silently nodded. Pym sat down and asked “What do you need, Stark?”

Shuri spoke up before Tony could. “We have this device that could allow us to travel back in time, but we can’t get it working.” Shuri handed the device to DR. Pym. He examined it closely.

“And how do you expect us to help?” Hope asked.

“We know that you have been exploring the Quantum Realm.” Tony said. “And we know that time behaves differently in there. We thought maybe we could somehow manipulate the Quantum realm to travel through time.”

Hank thought about it for a few moments. “Perhaps it could be done.” He said. “But that doesn’t mean it should be. Tampering with time is dangerous, you never know what you might change. It could be worse than things are now.”

“I don’t see how it could get any worse than it is now.” Tony said, stepping forward. “Have you not looked around?” While they were having there discussion, one of Okoye’s kimoyo beads beeped. 

“Things can always go wrong, Stark, or is your ego to big to learn from your mistakes. First you created Ultron, who knows what you’ll do next.” Hank replied. 

Tony was going to respond before Okoye said “We can discuss this in the jet. Right now we need to go.” 

“What is it?” Hope asked.

“The U.S. government has found you. They are sending Special Forces to try and arrest all of you.” 

“We need to take you back up to the jet.” Steve said.

“The jet was compromised. They moved it to the roof of the parking garage next door. We need to hurry.” Okoye said.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., give me a rundown.” Tony said as he tapped his glasses. They turned into an X-ray and Tony saw the special forces team.

“Two teams are coming.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said. “One from below and one from the roof. Estimated 1 minute before they arrive at the door.”

Everyone got ready for a fight. Steve activated the shields that T’Challa had given him. Shuri called for the Place Panther armour to cover her. It was a lot like T’Challa’s, only it was shaped to fit Shuri and it had the ability to create Shuri’s blasters around her wrists with the nanotechnology. 

Hank and Scott were packing up their equipment. Hope was already in her “Wasp” costume so she put her helmet on and got ready for battle as well. Tony was going to call the nanobots to create his suit but Steve said “Help them get packed.” He was referring to Hank and Scott. “We’ve got this.” Steve said. Tony was secretly a little grateful. His wound still hurt and he didn’t want to cause more damage. 

Everyone prepared themselves. Shuri lifted her blasters up, Okoye lifted her spear, and Steve and Hope were ready to fight. The cops kicked down the door. They had machine guns ready. Shuri shot out to blasts and the first few officers flew back into the opposite wall. Two more walked in and started firing. Steve blocked the bullets with his shields while Hope turned small and flew behind them. Steve took one down while Okoye took the other. In the hallway, Hope grabbed one officer by the neck, turned big and used the momentum to flip him over, then shot a blast from her wrist at another officer. Shuri stepped out into the hallway and shot some more of her blasts at the officers as Hope turned small and flew out of the way. 

Back in the hotel room. Tony, Hank and Scott were packing up there equipment quickly. Both Steve and Okoye were in the hallway now fighting more police officers. All of the sudden, two more officers broke through the windows and started firing. Tony called his armour to cover him and he stood in front of Hank and Scott, taking all the bullets. He shot repulser blasts at both of them. The fell out the window and were left hanging on the wire that had repelled down on. They would be okay. Tony only used concussion blasts. He knew they were just following orders.

Back in the hallway, Shuri shot another blast at an officer and he went flying backwards. Then she turned around and hit another officer across the head and he fell down. She was still getting used to her new strength and reflexes. She saw a few more officers coming out of the stairwell. She ran towards them, slid on her knees and tripped the first officer, and then knocked the other on down with a hit to the chest and head. She then opened the door and shot a blast at another officer. She looked over the railing and saw that there were a lot more officers running up the stairs. 

Shuri ran back to the rest of the group. “There are a lot more of them coming up the stairs. We won’t be able to go that way.”

“Where is the jet parked?” Steve asked.

“The next building over.” Okoye said. She pointed her spear at the other side of the hotel building. The she spun it around and hit an officer in the face, spun it again and used it to trip another officer. 

Hank, Scott and Tony, in his Iron Man suit, walked out of the hotel room. Scott and Hank each had a bag carrying Hank’s equipment, and Scott was half dressed in his Ant-man suit. The top was tied around his waist. Tony shot a blast at an officer inside the hotel room. 

“What now?” Scott asked. 

“I have an idea.” Cap said. The he ran towards a room on the side of the hotel that Okoye pointed to earlier. He broke through the door to a room and looked out the window. The roof of the parking garage was not much lower than the window, and Steve could make out the stealth cloak of the Wakandan Jet. 

He ran out to the group. He saw that some of the special forces officers now had power suits, allowing them to go toe to toe with super-powered beings such as him. Tony and Okoye were fighting three of them. 

“Follow me.” Steve said. Shuri, Scott, Hope and Hank looked towards him. Steve ran towards the window of the hotel room and jumped out. He held his sheilds in front of his face and fell down to the parking garage. Shuri ran to the window to see Captain America land and go into a roll on the roof of the parking garage. 

“He expects us to do that?” Scott asked. But Hope was already moving. She grabbed a hold of Scott and Hank. 

“Hold on.” 

“Wait wha…” Scott didn’t have a chance to finish. The Wasp used her wings to fly the three of them over to the parking garage. The weight of three people weighed her down, but they were on the parking garage before it would have mattered. 

Back in the Hotel, Tony and Okoye had made their way into the hotel room. Okoye was looking out the window while Tony was holding off the special forces. 

“These colonizers are crazy.” Okoye said, just as Shuri had ran and jumped out the window. She landed and went into roll similar to Captain America, but when she stood up she started laughing joyfully. 

Okoye stood their looking out the window for one moment, but then Tony grabbed a hold of her and said “Hold on.” Then Tony flew them over to the roof. 

They stood there for a moment. “Well if that’s everyone,” Steve said. “then let’s get our asses back to Wakanda.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers discuss how they can and should use time travel to help them.

So, you’re saying that a purple alien, wanted to find a bunch of magic space rocks, one of which was in the robot’s head, so that he could put them on a magic glove and kill half the universe?” Scott asked.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.” Tony answered. Scott, Hope, and Hank were meeting with the rest of the Avengers in Wakanda to discuss their next moves. 

“Wow, okay.” Scott was having trouble believing this, and he had a suit that allowed him shrike to the size of an ant and grow to the size of a giant. 

“And we need your knowledge of the quantum realm to help us travel back in time.” Bruce said.

“We should not be changing time.” Dr. Pym said. “That will create a paradox, which we do not want.” 

“Wait, whats a paradox?” Scott asked, a little lost. 

“Its something that is self-contradictory when taken to it’s logical conclusion.” Hank answered.

“So…” 

“Imagine you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your father was born.” Bruce said. “Then you would never be born. Then you would not be alive to kill your grandfather, and you would be still be born. And on and on and on.”

“Okay, so if I run into any of your grandfathers’ in the past, I’ll try not to kill ‘em. Alright?” Rocket said.

“It’s not that simple, Rocket.” Shuri said. “The smallest change in the past could cause a very large change in the future.”

“I’m sorry but are you having a conversation with a Raccoon?” Scott asked.

“Hey I have a name!!” Rocket yelled angrily. “And I’m not a racoon!!”

“No, I’m pretty sure you’re a raccoon.”

Rocket jumped off the table he was standing on and moved right up to Scott, pulled his gun out and pointed it at Scott’s face. “Call me raccoon one more time and they’re going to be cleaning that smug look of your’s off the ceiling.”

Steve moved towards them and calmly pushed Rocket’s gun down. “Hey, we’re on the same side, remember? Now is not the time for petty arguments.”

Rocket begrudgingly put his gun away and walked away, while repeating Cap’s words in a making voice. 

“Back to the point at hand…” Dr Pym started. “Going back in time is the last thing we want to do.”

“No.” Tony responded. “Facing Thanos without the information we need is the last thing we wanna do.”

“I’m pretty sure facing Thanos at all is the last thing any of us want to do.” Clint interrupted. 

“It may not be what we want to do, but it’s what we have to.” Clint said.

“Steve’s right.” Natasha said. “We beat Thanos and we might have a chance at fixing everything.”

“And our only chance of beating Thanos is by going back in time.” Tony finished Nat’s point.

“And when you do travel back in time, what will you do?” Hope asked.

“I need to talk to Doctor Strange.” Tony answered. “He had the time stone before Thanos took it. He was able to see the one scenario in which we beat Thanos. We need to go back to when he had the time stone, and find out how we win in that one scenario.”

“So you want to travel back in time so that you can get a wizard to travel to the future?” Hank question Tony. “Did you think that maybe we had already failed this one scenario? Or that the one scenario required you to not know how you win? This is why I never trust you Starks, you don’t think these things through. Your weapons were given to terrorists, you created Ultron, and now this.”

“Oh I’ve thought this through plenty.” Tony walked up to Hank. “I’ve thought about how half the universe was killed by a homicidal maniac, and this is the only way to beat this guy and bring everyone back.” 

Tony and Hank stared each other down. Steve broke the silence by saying “Listen Dr. Pym, no one is planning on breaking any timelines here. We just want to go back and learn what we can about Thanos, and how we can defeat him.” 

“So what are you suggesting we do?” Bruce asked.

“Why don’t we just go back and take the infinity stones before Thanos gets them?” Hawkeye asked.

“There are too many variables in that. Who knows how history could change if the infinity stones suddenly disappeared.” Hank answered.

“We should go back and find out what we can about Thanos, and the power of these Infinity Stones, and then use that against him in battle.” Steve said. 

Hank was silent for a few seconds. “Fine.” The doctor said. “Where is the lab?” He asked.

“Some of my servants will take you to your rooms and then the lab.” Shuri answered. “Mr. Stark, Dr. Banner and myself will meet you down there.”

—————-

“So this device you found would store your atoms within it while it takes you through time and space?” Hank asked as he analyzed the piece of Hydra technology.

“That’s our theory.” Tony said. “We heard about some of your research into the Quantum realm and thought that might be the link we needed to make it work.”

“It’s possible.” Hank said. “He looked towards the other scientists in the room. “In the quantum realm, time and space cease to exist in the sense that we know them. In our experiments and journeys into the realm, we have only been able to travel forward in time in very small increments.”

“How small are you talking?” Bruce asked.

“A few seconds at most. The same with moving through space. When we would come out of the realm, the most we would have moved is a few centimetres.”

“But if you were able to get this device to access the quantum realm, do you think that we would be able to travel back further?” Shuri asked. 

“It’s possible. I’ll need to run some analysis on this device. And we will need to find a way to allow the device to utilize pym particles so that it would actually be able to access the quantum realm.” 

“Alright, let’s get to work then.” Tony said.

————————

Peter was still travelling through the barren, orange lands. He had no idea where he was, or how long he had been there. He never ran into anyone else. He was left a lone with his own thoughts.

Peter had been able to piece together what exactly had happened. He was fighting some evil alien over a wizard’s necklace, because it had something called a time stone in it. And if this alien got the time stone then half of all life would cease to exist. The alien beat them, got the stone, and then people started disappearing. He was one of those people. 

Peter wondered if this was the afterlife. It wasn’t all clouds and angels playing harps or whatever like people described heaven, and it wasn’t all filled with fire and torture like how people talked about hell. Where ever he was, it was just, empty. 

Peter kept walking for a while. He was slowing giving up hope that he would find anyone. Eventually he got tired, dropped to the ground, and fell asleep. 

When he woke up, he thought he was hallucinating. He looked up, and thought that he saw silhouettes in the distance. He immediately stood up. He looked closer. Those definitely looked like people. Peter ran towards them, hoping it wasn’t just his brain playing tricks on him.

As he got closer, he started to make out the figures. The first person he recognized was Doctor Strange, the wizard he and Mr. Stark left earth with. Then he saw the other Peter, the one who called himself Star-lord, and his friends, the green, muscular one, and the one with the antennae. Peter was getting hopeful. He finally wouldn’t be alone in this strange place.

“Hey.” Peter called out. “Hey guys, it’s me.” He kept calling to them. Eventually they saw him, stopped and waiting for him to get closer. Peter had so many questions. He ran up to them and started asking “Where have you guys been? Where are we? What is this place? What happened? What…” 

“Calm down kid.” The other Peter said. 

“Boy am I glad to see you guys.” Spidey said. “so uhh, where are we?” 

“I think we are in the soul stone.” Dr. Strange said as he looked around at the environment. 

“How could we all fit in a stone? It’s tiny.” The green, muscular guy asked, completely serious. Peter was having trouble remembering everyone’s name.

“Our bodies aren’t here, our souls are.” Strange explained. “When Thanos one, he trapped all of our souls in here.” 

“The wizard is correct.” The one with the antennae said. She looked out into the vast environment. “Our bodies have been destroyed, and Thanos used the soul stone to capture all our souls.” She said, sounding quite scared. 

“Our bodies aren’t destroyed though, mine’s right here.” The green one said.

“Have you not been listening to what we’ve been saying?” Strange asked, getting annoyed. “That’s not your body, its just your soul.”

“But…” the green alien started but was cut-off by other Peter.

“How come we only found each other now, and not earlier? We all disappeared in the same spot.” He asked.

“You guys only just found each other?” Spider-man asked.

“Yes, only just a few minutes before you got here.” Other Peter said.

“Something’s changing with the stone.” Dr. Strange started. “We spent weeks alone and just know we find each other. Something is different.”

“So what does that mean?” Other Peter asked. 

“I don’t know. But I can sense there is something different. It almost feels… weaker.” 

“So can we escape then?” 

“No. Not really. Its still very strong. Its more like Thanos is losing control of the stone.”

“Serves that Bastard right.” Other Peter said angrily. “First he kills Gamora, and now us! When we get out of here, I am so gonna kill him in ways he couldn’t even imagine.” Other Peter exclaimed. 

“What, so we are going to get out of here?” Peter asked, excitedly. He was only 16, he still had to graduate, get a job, and do so many other things. 

“Maybe.” Doctor Strange said. Everyone looked towards him. “But all we can do right now is hope that the Avengers are on the right path.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Okay,” Hank said as he walked towards the rest of the group along with his fellow scientists “We got it.” He threw the device onto the table. Everyone sat up at the table.

“What, you got it to work?” Scott asked in disbelief. “You mean we can actually travel through time now?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, Scott.” Hank said, adding a little snark to the statement. 

“Okay. Now what?” Clint asked.

“Now we use it to go back in time, find the wizard, and find out how we beat Thanos.” Tony said.

“Hey, tin can.” Rocket said as he jumped onto the table. “I may have an idea.” 

“What is it, rabbit?” Thor asked.

“If we can go back and get readings on the stones before Thanos gets them, perhaps we could use them to create weapons for us.” Rocket explained. 

“What kind of devices?” Natasha asked.

“All sorts of weapons. Even the kind we could use to weaken Thanos’ effects on us.” Everyone started to get more intrigued by this. They knew that if they tried to fight Thanos without prep, he would kill them in an instant. He could make them disintegrate in seconds like he did with half the universe, or he could use the mind stone to control them. Or he could do limitless other things to them. “Or I could make some bombs so we can go blow up some moons.” Rocket added.

“We aren’t going to be blowing up any moons.” Steve said.

“First Gamora, now you guys. No one ever wants to do anything fun.” Rocket muttered under his breath. 

“Can you guys really do that?” Rhodey asked.

Tony was about to respond before Rocket spoke up. “Of course I can. Just get me the readings, and I’ll make whatever weapons you’ve dreamt of. But I need readings of the stones while they are being used.” Tony gave Rocket the stink eye behind his back. He never thought he would be shown up by a raccoon of all things.

“Alright.” Steve said. “Where do we go to get Rocket these readings?”

“We know that the space and mind stone were in New York 6 years ago.” Bruce said. “We can start there.” 

“Ronan the Conquerer had the power stone on Xander 4 years ago.” Nebula added.

“The reality stone was in Greenwich village when Malekith the Dark Elf tried to use it to bring darkness to the nine realms.” Thor said.

“And what about the Time stone?” Rhodey asked. 

“Well if we have these Time machines here, then can’t we use those when Thanos tries to turn time on us, or whatever?” Valkyrie asked.

“In theory yes, but I would need to make more of them, or make them a bit better.” Dr. Pym stated. “Right now we only have enough for 4 people to travel back in time, and they only get you to your approximate destination. I’ll need more time.” 

“We’ll get you more time.” Steve said. 

“So, we go to New York in 2012, then London in 2013, and then, uhh, where did you say the power stone was?” Tony asked Nebula.

“Xander.” Nebula said.

“Right, Xandar in 2014. And then we go find the wizard and try and figure out how we beat a god.” Tony said.

“Sounds like a plan.” Nat said.

“Okay. Dr. Pym said that only 4 of us could head back.” Steve said. “Any volunteers?”

“Scott should go.” Hank said, without warning Scott, who was quite shocked. “He knows the quantum realm. So if you run into any troubles, he may be able to help.”

“Right, yeah, I can totally help with the, the uhhh, the…” Scott started.

“The quantum realm.” Hank finished his thought.

“Right, that.”

“I’ll go too.” Tony volunteered. “I was there in New York, I know the wizard, and I have the equipment to get the readings.”

“I’m familiar with both the Chitari and Ronan’s forces.” Nebula said. “I can help in get past their forces undetected.”

“I’ll come too.” Steve said. Tony was a little upset to hear this. He wasn’t exactly thrilled to go on a mission with Steve after what happened in Siberia, even if Nebula and Ant-man would be there too. “You’ll need as much help as you can get, and I’m a little familiar with being a man out of time.”

“All right,” Scott said. “Let’s take a trip through time.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update this. I've been really busy lately but I'll try to add more chapters in the next week or two.

“I’ve set the devices to take you to New York during the alien invasion.” Hank Pym said. He handed each of the four time machines to Tony, Steve, Nebula, and Scott. The each took it and placed it around their hand using the straps attached. Once you get the information you need, you will set the destination like this.” He took one of the devices and demonstrated how to change the date and location of their destination by rotating the circular device clockwise or counter clockwise. 

Shuri stepped up to the group. “When you get there, you can use these…” she handed them some modified Kimoyo beads. “… to get the readings on the stones that we need. Just hold it to the stone, or whatever is holding it, for about a minute. Then it will send all the information to me.”

“And make sure that you are seen as little as possible.” Hank added. “Especially by your past selves. We have no idea how they might react to seeing their future selves.” 

“So go back in time, place this thing on the magical space stones, and don’t be seen by ourselves.” Scott said, going over all of the instructions. “Shouldn’t be too hard.” 

“Okay, when you are all ready, press down on this button here, and then it should take you back.” Hank said. 

“What do you mean ‘should’?” Asked Tony.

“Okay, all of you need to activate them at the same time so you don’t come out to far from each other.” Hank said as he began to leave the room. “We’ll be counting you down from outside the room, just in case you guys explode.”

“Explode?” Scott said. But Hank was already outside of the room before he could respond. They all turned towards the window where Shuri, Bruce, Natasha, Hope and now Hank were standing. 

Hank’s voice came over the speaker in the room. “I’m going to count you down from 10.” He explained, and then started counting. 

“Alright,” Scott started. “Let’s hope we don’t die.” 

They all stood ready. Tony was wearing some civilian clothing, hiding the chest piece he had on that contained all the nanobots for his suit. Scott and Steve were wearing their superhero suits, and Steve had the shields that Shuri had given him on his wrists. Nebula had her batons strapped to her legs. 

“3…2…1..Now!” Hank said over the speaker. They all activated their devices at the same time and were suddenly transported to the quantum realm. Tony had one second to look at this strange realm that he hoped he could one day learn more about. But then he was pulled through it and all of the sudden he was in the middle of an alley way in New York city. 

He fell over when he arrived, grabbing a nearby dumpster to pull himself back up. His legs were a little wobbly, but he looked around to see were the others were. Scott had appeared further down the alley way. He looked at Tony, “Where are Cap and the uhhh, blue alien girl?”

Almost on cue, they heard a scream from one of the buildings, and then Nebula jumped out of one of the windows and landed next to Tony. Some one looked out of the window Nebula had jumped out of, and looked at the people below. She turned and ran away, screaming, “aliens are invading.” Over and over again. 

“Making friends, are we?” Tony asked Nebula. 

“She’ll get over it.” Nebula responded. 

The three of them walked out onto the street. Tony and Scott were in front, while Nebula stayed back in the alley, so that she did not frighten anymore New Yorkers. 

“Not that I’m complaining, but I don’t think I see any aliens flying around right now.” Scott said as he looked around the sky above him.

“The invasion hasn’t started yet.” Nebula said. “If it had, there would be a lot more destruction here.”

All of the sudden, they heard someone jumping down one of the fire escapes in the alley. It was Steve. He landed and walked over to the rest of the group. “She’s right, the invasion hasn’t started yet. I landed on the roof, and Stark Tower hasn’t even been touched yet.”

“Well then how long do we have to wait?” Scott asked. Then they heard what sounded like a jet plane flying over them. They all looked up, and Tony saw his past self flying towards his own tower in the suit that had been damaged after he tried to repair the heliicarrier. 

“Not long.” Tony said. He started walking in the direction of Stark Tower. “Once the portal opens, the tesseract will be unguarded until Natasha gets up to close it. That will be our chance.” 

“And what about Loki’s scepter?” Steve asked. “He had it with him for most of battle.”

“We’ll have to figure that one out.” Tony said.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a plan.” Steve said.

“Well then why don’t you come up with one.” Tony replied. 

Steve stopped walking and grabbed Tony by the arm to hold him back. “This is the problem with you Tony. You don’t think to plan ahead. You just fly into the battle, repulsers first, and figure everything else out later. We can’t take these chances here.” 

Tony was starring daggers into Steve’s eyes. Scott stood a little away from them, wondering if they might start fighting. Nebula was annoyed. After a few seconds, she said “Listen you stupid humans, we need to get to the stones now. So we need to move.” 

Just as Nebula finished saying that, they heard an all to familiar noise come from the top of Stark Tower. They all looked over and saw the portal open up above the city, and the Chitauri started flying out. 

“We need to move now.” Steve said. They all started running towards the tower as civilians started to run in the other direction. The Chitari were flying all over the city now, and they could see the trail of destruction heading there way. 

After running a few blocks, they stopped to see all the destruction. Tony and Steve had forgotten how much damage had been done in such little time.

“We need to get up there fast.” Steve said, pointing towards the top of Stark Tower. 

“How do you suppose we do that?” Scott asked. But as he did so, a Chitauri Chariot flew down the street they were on, blasting towards them. Steve raised his shields and Tony stood their with his Iron Man suit on while Scott ran for cover, but Nebula ran towards it, jumped off the roof of a car and landed on the chariot. Soon it flew past, and all Tony, Scott and Steve could see were a few Chitauri bodies fall off of it before it turned around and flew back towards them. It slowed down as it reached them, and pulled into a stop as the group saw that Nebula had taken control of the vehicle. 

“I got your ride up now boys.” She said. “Get On.” Steve and Scott got on the Chariot while Tony was about to start flying up to the tower before Steve grabbed him by the arm.

“Wait Tony.” He said. “What if someone sees two Iron Men in the sky? Or what if you see yourself?” 

Tony thought about what Steve said before he pulled his arm out of his grasp and begrudgingly got on the Chariot. 

“Hold on to something.” Nebula said in here robotic voice. Then the flying vehicle was off at incurably fast speeds. They flew up the tower, and the Chitauri forces they encountered on the way were getting significantly more troublesome. Tony was blasting some that got a little too close, while Steve blocked some of the fire with his shields. 

Eventually they got to the top of the tower. Nebula slowed the speeder down and they all got off. 

“Who’s that?” Scott asked, looking towards the unconscious body lying on the roof with them. 

“Thats Dr. Erik Selvig.” Steve told him. “Loki forced him to build that.” Steve pointed at the device that had opened the portal, allowing all of the Chitauri forces in. 

As Scott and Steve were speaking, Tony had spreading moved towards the Tesseract and placed the device Shuri gave them on the force field that was around the Cube. Luckily it was still able to collect the data they needed. 

“Okay, we got this one, where is Loki’s Scepter?” Tony yelled at the rest of the group.

Scott looked at the destruction around the city. “Ummm. I’m going to guess that Loki has it.” He said this as he saw a Chariot with Loki on, causing a lot of destruction as it flew threw the cities of New York City. 

“Well then we need to get it.” Neblua said as she walked forwards and pointed her gun towards Loki. 

“Wait.” Steve said as he grabbed Nebula’s gun and pushed it downwards. “We can’t change the timelines too much.”

“When else will we get the chance to hold the stone?” Nebula snapped back. 

“Just wait. We’ll get our chance.” Steve said.

As he said this, another chariot flew by, shooting at them as they stood on the roof. Tony fired back, while Nebula continued to watch Loki fly around, waiting for her chance to get the stone. 

Eventually, as the others were busy fighting a few of the Chitauri, Nebula saw an explosion on Loki’s chariot, and he crashed on a balcony just a few stories below them. She saw him stand up, but then a large green humanoid creature slam into him and they both flew into the building. She looked closer and saw that the scepter was still on the balcony. 

Nows my chance, she thought. She jumped over the edge to go get it and get the data they needed. Scott, who was close by, saw her jump down. “Wait..” He yelled. “Where are you going?” He quickening jumped and followed her. When he landed, he saw why she had jumped. She was holding the device to the scepter and getting the data they needed. 

“You didn’t have to follow me.” She said. 

“Well I kinda thought… Oh Shit!” He saw something behind Nebula that terrified him more than anything he’d seen in his life of crime-fighting. Nebula looked towards what Scott was looking at. 

“What is that?” She asked. 

“That’s the Hulk.” Scott said in fear. Hulk looked at the two time travellers in front of him with anger and all of the sudden he jumped towards them.


End file.
